SuppUmenl  to 

Clje  Annals;  of 

THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  POUTICAL 
AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 
^^•v,   1916 


Steadying 
Employment 

With  a  Section  Devoted  to 
Some  Facts  on  Unemployment 
in  Philadelphia 


PHILADELPHIA 
The  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science 


THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  POLITICAL 
AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

Origin  and  Purpose.  The  Academy  was  organized  December 
14,  1889,  to  provide  a  national  forum  for  the  discussion  of  political  and 
social  questions.  The  Academy  does  not  take  sides  upon  controverted 
questions,  but  seeks  to  secure  and  present  reliable  information  to  assist 
the  public  in  forming  an  intelligent  and  accurate  opinion. 

Publications.  The  Academy  publishes  annually  six  issues  of 
its  "Annals"  dealing  with  the  six  most  prominent  current  social  and 
political  problems.  Each  publication  contains  from  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  papers  upon  the  same  general  subject.  The  larget  number  of  the 
papers  published  are  solicited  by  the  Academy;  they  are  serious  dis- 
cussions, not  doctrinaire  expressions  of  opinion. 

Meetings.  The  Academy  holds  five  scientific  sessions  each  year 
during  the  winter  months,  and  it  also  has  an  annual  meeting  in  April, 
extending  over  two  full  days  and  including  six  sessions.  The  papers 
of  permanent  value  presented  at  the  meetings  are  included  in  the  Acad- 
emy publications. 

Membership.  The  subscription  price  of  The  Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science  is  $6.00  per  year. 
Single  copies  are  sold  at  $1.00  each.  The  Annals  are  sent  to  all 
members  of  the  Academy,  $4.00  (or  more)  of  the  annual  membership 
fee  of  $5.00  being  for  a  subscription  to  the  publication.  Membership 
in  the  Academy  may  be  secured  by  applying  to  the  Secretary,  36th 
Street  and  Woodland  Avenue,  Philadelphia.  The  membership  fee  is 
$5.00;  life  membership  fee,  $100.  Members  not  only  receive  all  the 
regular  publications  of  the  Academy,  but  are  also  invited  to  attend  and 
take  part  in  the  scientific  meetings,  and  have  the  privilege  of  applying 
to  the  Editorial  Council  for  information  upon  current  political  and 
social  question. 


STEADYING    EMPLOYMENT 

WITH  A  SECTION  DEVOTED  TO  SOME  FACTS 
ON  UNEMPLOYMENT  IN   PHILADELPHIA 


The  investigation  forming  the  basis  for  this  study  was  carried  on  in  the 
Department  of  Public  Works  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia 


JOSEPH  H.  WILLITS,  A.M., 

Instructor  in-  I.vdcstry,  Wiiautox  School, 
University  of  Pennsylvania 


PHILADELPHIA 

The  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science 
1916 


Copyright,  1916,  by 

American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science 

AH  rights  reserved 


EUROPEAN  AGENTS 

England:    P.  S.  King  &  Son,  Ltd.,  2  Great  Smith  St.,  Westminster,  London,  S.W. 
France:    L.  Larose,  Rue  Soufflot,  22,  Paris. 

Germany:    Mayer  &  Miiller,  2  Prinz  Louis  Ferdinandstrasse,  Berlin,  N.  W. 
Italy:    Giornale  Degli  Economisti,  via  Monte  Savello,  Palazzo  Orsini,  Rome. 
Spain:    E.  Dossat,  9  Plaza  de  Santa  Ana,  Madrid. 


Public  officials  and  committees  without  number  havebeencom- 
missioned  to  study  the  abnormalities  of  unemploj'ment.  But  not 
until  1915,  when  Morris  Llewelljn  Cooke,  then  Director  of  the 
Department  of  Public  Works  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  assigned 
to  Mr.  Joseph  H.  Willits  this  duty,  had  there  been,  at  public  ini- 
tiative and  with  the  facilities  of  a  public  office,  a  thoroughgoing 
study  of  the  normalities  of  employment  and  the  relation  of  indus- 
trial management  and  industrial  policies  to  unemployment. 

]\Ir.  Willits'  report  to  Director  Cooke  was  first  published  in  a 
small  edition  by  the  City  of  Philadelphia.  Because  of  the  limited 
number  of  copies  originally  issued,  because  this  supply  is  now  ex- 
hausted, and  because  of  the  valuable  nature  of  the  study,  the 
Academy  republishes  it  here  in  a  revised  form.  It  is  particularly 
appropriate  and  valuable  as  a  supplement  to  the  larger  volume  on 
"Personnel  and  Employment  Problems  in  Industrial  Management." 

Clyde  Lyndon  King, 

Editor. 


m 


1205281 


FOREWORD 


In  December,  1914,  a  meeting  of  business  men  was  called  by 
Mayor  Blankenburg  with  a  view  to  seeing  what  steps  the  Phila- 
delphia community  should  take  with  regard  to  its  unemployment 
problem.  This  meeting  was  attended  by  Samuel  Rea,  President 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad;  J.  Howell  Cummings,  President 
of  The  John  B.  Stetson  Company;  J.  W.  Van  Dyke,  President  of 
the  Atlantic  Refining  Company;  Franklin  Brewer,  General  Man- 
ager of  Wanamaker's;  Louis  J.  Kolb,  of  the  Kolb  Bakery  Com- 
pany; Joseph  Steele,  of  Wm.  Steele  &  Sons  Co.,  builders;  Louis 
Bloc,  of  the  Ford  Motor  Company,  and  several  members  of  the 
Mayor's  cabinet. 

The  number  of  men  and  women  out  of  employment  had  at 
that  date  not  reached  so  high  a  total  as  was  experienced  during 
the  following  January  and  February.  The  meeting  was  called  to- 
gether with  the  thought  of  taking  all  possible  steps  which  might 
act  to  minimize  the  ultimate  amount  of  unemployment.  A  num- 
ber of  suggestions  as  to  possible  lines  of  action  were  made.  It 
was  the  concensus  of  opinion  that  the  agencies  then  at  work  would 
give  the  maximum  of  relief  to  the  immediate  situation.  The  con- 
ference felt  that  the  municipality  should  rather  acquaint  itself 
with  the  problem  in  its  broader  aspects,  to  find  out  what  other 
municipalities  were  doing  in  this  matter,  and  to  make  a  general 
study  of  the  problem  of  unemployment  such  as  would  suggest 
what  steps  might  be  taken  to  minimize  it  in  the  future  in  Phila- 
delphia. As  there  was  a  vacancy  then  existing  in  the  position  of 
General  Inspector,  Office  of  the  Director,  Department  of  Public 
Works,  and  as  this  position  was  exempt  under  civil  service  rules, 
it  was  suggested  that  this  vacancy  be  filled  by  the  appointment  of  a 
student  of  economics  qualified  to  carry  on  an  inquiry  into  each  of 
the  phases  of  the  general  unemployment  problem. 

This  suggestion  having  received  the  unanimous  approval  of 
the  conference,  and  after  several  weeks  of  search  for  the  right  man, 
announcement  was  made  of  the  appointment  of  Joseph  H.  Willits, 
4519  Sansom  Street,  Instructor  in  Industry  in  the  Wharton  School 


Foreword  V 

of  Finance  and  Commerce  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
selection  of  Mr.  Willits  was  approved  by  his  associates  in  the  faculty 
of  the  Wharton  School  and  he  was  given  an  eight  months'  leave  of 
absence  in  order  to  give  his  undivided  attention  to  the  work. 

In  this  report  it  will  be  noted  that  an  effort  has  been  made 
to  get  down  to  the  basic  causes  of  unemployment  and  to  describe 
a  standard,  which  it  is  believed  will,  during  the  next  generation, 
be  forced  upon  any  industrial  community  which  is  to  compete  in 
any  large  and  successful  waj-  with  sister  communities  at  home 
and  abroad. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  hereby  made  to  those  employers 
and  employes  (as  well  as  others)  whose  courtesy  and  cooperation 
made  possible  the  gathering  together  of  the  information  which 
makes  up  this  report.  The  almost  unanimous  desire  of  employers 
not  to  have  their  names  mentioned  in  connection  with  information 
furnished  makes  it  unfortunately  necessary  that  cases  shall  be 
referred  to  anonymously. 

Signed, 

Morris  L.  Cooke, 

Director. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

At  the  outset  of  this  report  attention  is  called  to  the  difference 
between  the  unemployed  person  who  can  and  will  work,  if  he  has 
the  chance;  and  the  unemployed  person  who  is  unable  to  work 
through  physical  incapacity,  or  who  would  "starve  to  death  along- 
side of  a  job  before  he  would  work  at  it."  The  larger  amount  of 
advertising  that  these,  "the  unemployables,"  receive,  blinds  many 
citizens  to  the  very  existence  of  the  first  class.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  immediate  community  welfare,  the  problem  of  the  first  class 
is  the  more  important,  for  it  is  the  degenerating  effect  of  this  form  of 
unemployment  that  drives  many  self-respecting  and  capable 
workers  into  the  "unemployable"  ranks.  This  report  primarily 
has  reference  to  the  "unemployed."  The  handling  of  the  second 
class  is  largely,  though  not  altogether,  a  sociological,  not  an  in- 
dustrial problem. 

Joseph  H.  Willits. 


VI 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

PARTI 
Facts  of  Unemployment 
The  permanency  of  unemployment,  p.  3;  the  textile  industry,  p.  5;  lace  and  lace 
curtains,  p.  7;  carpet,  p.  13;  cloth  industry,  p.  18;  hosiery,  p.  20;  the  clothing 
industry,  p.  21;  industries  manufacturing  electric  and  steam  railway  equip- 
ment and  ships,  p.  27;  the  building  trades,  p.  29;  the  longshoremen,  p.  29; 
agricultural  labor,  p.  31 ;  department  stores,  p.  32;  regularity  of  employment, 
p.  33;  labor  union  statements,  p.  34;  miscellaneous  industries,  p.  35. 

PART  II 

The  Cost  of  Unemployment 
To  the  employe,  p.  37;  to  the  employer,  p.  43. 

PART  III 
The  Increase  of  Knowledge  about  Unemployment 
Canvass  by  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company,  p.  48;  canvass  by  State  De- 
partment of  Labor  and  Industry,  p.  48;  study  on  unemployment  by  Consum- 
ers' League,  p.  49;  courses  in  unemployment,  p.  50. 

PART  IV 

The  Management  of  Employing  Concerns  in  Its  Relation  to 
Unemployment 
Obtaining  and  analyzing  the  facts  in  each  individual  plant,  p.  56;  incomplete 
methods  of  determining  costs,  p.  58;  maintaining  an  excessive  labor  reserve, 
p.  59;  reduction  of  the  labor  turnover,  p.  63;  better  methods  of  hiring  and 
discharging  help,  p.  71;  better  methods  of  training  help,  p.  75;  reducing  the 
fluctuations  in  employment,  p.  76;  closer  cooperation  between  the  manufac- 
turing and  selling  ends  of  a  concern  and  the  standardization  of  product,  p.  77; 
abuses,  p.  77;  time  lost  waiting  for  dye  (or  other  materials),  p.  84;  lack  of 
balance  between  departments,  p.  86;  stock  taking,  p.  86;  limitation  of  the 
amount  an  employe  is  allowed  to  earn  each  week,  p.  87;  frequent  changes  in 
standard  daily  production  policy  of  factories  according  to  volume  of  orders  in 
sight,  p.  87;  manufacture  to  stock,  p.  88;  miscellaneous  practices  by  em- 
ployers which  lessen  or  increase  the  burden  of  unemployment,  p.  88;  giving 
notice  of  lay-off,  p.  88;  dovetailing  of  trades,  p.  88;  loans  to  employes,  p.  89; 
retaining  all  of  the  employes'  time  at  fractional  productivity,  p.  89;  enforcing 
needless  expense  on  employes  during  periods  of  unemployment,  p.  90;  part 
time  employment,  p.  90;  times  of  pa3Tnent,  p.  91 . 

PART  V 
The  Duty  of  the  City  Government 
Municipal  work,  p.  92;  a  municipal  employment  bureau,  p.  95;  a  municipallodg- 
inghouse,  p.  101;  the  duty  of  the  consumer,  p.  101. 

vii 


PART  I 

FACTS  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT   IN  PHILADELPHIA 

The  most  fundamental  fact  about  unemployment  in  Phil- 
adelphia or  any  other  American  industrial  center  is  that  we  know 
practically  nothing  about  it.  We  do  not  know  its  extent;  whether 
it  is  increasing;  in  what  industries  it  exists;  just  what  are  the  dif- 
ferent causes  that  bring  about  lost  time;  nor  just  how  unemploy- 
ment affects  the  worker's  standard  of  life,  his  work  and  his  citizen- 
ship, as  well  as  the  efficiency  of  the  plant.  Not  only  do  we  not 
know,  but  we  do  not  have  any  available  information  to  which  we 
can  turn.  So  far  as  definite  knowledge  is  concerned,  we  are  still 
"up  in  the  air." 

The  information  collected  by  the  various  branches  of  govern- 
ment— national,  state  and  city — is  still  most  vague  and  general 
in  character.  Every  ten  years  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States  Census  come  to  Philadelphia  and  collect  figures  which 
show  for  one  year  the  number  of  wage-earners  engaged  each  month 
in  each  separate  industry.^  The  State  Department  of  Labor  and 
Industry  at  irregular  intervals  collects  from  a  large  number  of 
representative  firms  a  statement  of  the  maximum  and  minimum 
number  employed  during  the  year,  and  the  dates  on  which  these 
high  and  low  points  in  employment  occurred.^  Such  information, 
while  it  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  throws  but  the  barest  light 
on  the  extent,  nature  and  causes  of  unemployment.  The  only  local 
investigations  have  been  made  by  the  Consumers'  League  and  by 
Phipps  Institute.  Since  these  investigations  were  not  primarily 
concerned  with  unemployment,  the  information  furnished  on  that 
subject  is  necessarily  scanty. 

The  lack  of  definite  knowledge  goes  deeper  than  the  absence 
of  public  reports,  statistics  and  investigations.  A  large  percent- 
age of  emplo3'ers  have  made  little  analysis  of  their  own  unem- 
ployment problem.     They  do  not  have  available  for  their  own  or 

'■  Twelfth  U.  S.  Census,  Vol.  8,  Census  of  Manufactures,  pp.  276-281. 
^  State  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  Bulletin  on  Variation  in  Employ- 
ment. 

[11 


2  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

any  one's  else  use  data  or  information  which  show  the  extent 
and  causes  of  lost  time  in  their  plants.  Until  such  information 
is  coMected,  our  knowledge  of  the  causes  and  nature  of  unemploy- 
ment will  remain  in  a  very  nebulous  state.  Very  few  of  the  labor 
unions  keep  any  record  showing  even  the  amount,  much  less  the 
effect,  of  unemployment;  and  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  records 
that  are  kept  are  thorough  enough  to  be  reliable.  Moreover, 
the  unions  are  apt,  as  a  matter  of  policy,  to  exaggerate  the  amount 
of  unemployment  in  good  times.  Conversely,  in  bad  times,  the 
fear  that  the  strait  of  the  workers,  if  known,  may  be  used  as  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  lower  wages,  leads  labor  unions  to  conceal 
the  real  facts.  Finally,  the  figures,  even  if  complete,  would  present 
information  for  but  a  small  minority  of  the  total  body  of  Philadel- 
phia wage-earners. 

The  value  of  individual  firms  and  of  unions  as  sources  of  in- 
formation is  still  further  lessened  by  the  hesitancy  that  many  em- 
ployers and  some  labor  unions  have  of  giving  information  to  the 
public.  The  unions  fear  that  the  employer  will  find  out  something 
about  the  organization  which  he  may  use  to  its  injury.  The 
employers,  as  a  rule,  fear  that  information  which  may  be  used  to 
their  injury,  will  reach  business  competitors,  employes,  or  some  regu- 
lating government  agency.  Most  of  the  information  for  this 
report  obtained  from  employers  has  been  secured  under  the  promise 
not  to  mention  the  name  of  the  firm  or  the  individual.  The  results 
of  this  "hush"  policy  make  the  study  of  unemployment  very  much 
like  a  case  of  "blind  man's  buff." 

Aside  from  these  vague  sources,  Philadelphia's  information 
about  her  own  unemployment  is  confined  to  what  appears  in  the 
newspapers  or  is  passed  around  by  word  of  mouth.  Our  igno- 
rance is  abundantly  evidenced  whenever  the  amount  of  unem- 
ployment rises  above  the  normal,  by  the  wide  variation  shown  in 
the  "estimates"  of  the  number  of  unemployed  that  appear  from 
one  source  or  another.  For  example,  during  the  winter  of  1914-15, 
the  estimates  of  the  number  of  unemployed  in  the  city  ranged 
from  50,000  to  250,000.  No  one  knew  the  accurate  guess  from 
the  inaccurate  one;  no  one  could  tell  the  honest  guess  from  the 
one  that  was  deliberately  faked.  We  were  at  sea  between  the 
exaggerations,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  calamity  howler,  and  the 
exaggerations,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  conscious  preacher  of 


Steadying  Employment  3 

optimism.  Small  wonder  that  many  sincere  persons  were  at  a  loss 
to  know  to  what  extent  the  city  was  justified  in  resorting  to  ultra- 
heroic  measures. 

Not  until  the  end  of  the  summer  months — long  after  the  time 
for  decision  was  past — was  the  public  as  a  whole  put  in  possession 
of  information  that  gave  a  more  definite  idea  of*the  extent  of  un- 
employment. In  order  to  throw  a  little  more  light  on  the  amount 
and  sources  of  unemployment  during  the  past  winter,  the  Metro- 
politan Life  Insurance  Company  was  invited,  by  Mayor  Blanken- 
burg,  to  conduct  an  unemployment  canvass  among  the  families  of 
those  who  held  policies  in  the  company.  The  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany placed  the  City  of  Philadelphia  under  obligations  to  itself  by 
agreeing  to  aid,  and  lent  its  splendid  organization  for  the  purpose. 
The  canvass  was  conducted  during  the  week  beginning  March  15, 
1915,  by  the  agents  of  the  company  from  each  of  the  company's 
branch  offices. 

In  this  study  the  agents  of  the  company  called  on  78,058 
families,  in  which  were  137,244  wage-earners, — about  18  per  cent 
of  all  the  wage-earners  in  the  city.  Of  the  wage-earners  canvassed, 
it  was  found  that  10.3  per  cent  were  entirely  out  of  employment 
and  that  19.7  per  cent  in  addition  were  working  part  time. 

Canvasses  conducted  in  other  cities  by  the  U.  S.  Department 
of  Labor  Statistics  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Metropolitan 
figures  are  typical  for  the  entire  city.  If  that  be  so,  there  were 
in  Philadelphia  in  the  middle  of  March,  1915,  approximately  79,000 
unemployed  and  approximately  150,000  part-time  wage-earners. 
It  is  significant  that  the  state  of  affairs  as  revealed  by  the  above 
figures  was  less  severe  than  in  most  other  large  cities  where  similar 
canvasses  were  conducted. 

This  canvass  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  textile  industries 
and  building  trades  furnished  the  largest  number  of  unemployed; 
of  whom  over  one  fifth  had  been  out  of  work  over  six  months.  In 
less  than  one  fourth  of  1  per  cent  of  the  cases  was  unemployment 
due  to  strikes  or  lock-outs. 

The  Permanency  of  Unemployment 

The  absence  of  dependable  information  about  our  own  un- 
employment limits  discussion,  in  most  instances,  to  general  state- 
ments.    Datd;   can   be   used    chiefly    for   purposes   of  illustration 


Chart  showir\g  the'vanation  \r\  the 
amount  of  money  relief  furnished 
during  seventeen  months  by  Ihe 
Philadelphia  branch  of  Ihe  society 
for  Organizing  Charity  The  un- 
shaded  portion  shows  that  part 
of  the  relief  which  was  furnished 
because  of  impossibility  of  secur- 
ing employment  on  the  part  of 
those  who  were  able  to  work  - 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Society  s 
investigators    Note  the  fairly  con- 
stant sue  of  the  relief  furmshed 
for  causes  other  than  unenn  — 
ployment  and   the  great    irregu- 
lar.tu    of  relief  furnished  un - 
emproyment  -  alrnost  none  ai 
all  in   the   summer  months 

MaylloMaijM 
Apr  Uo  Apr  50 
MarlloMar31 
Feb  Ho  Feb  ?6 
Jan.ltoJanJl 

^ 

^ 

^ 

x^ 

-.^ 

^Ty 

^ 

^ 

^ 

>^ 

^ 

^ 

^ 

^ 

^ 

^ 

^ 

(191!)) 

Decl5loDec31 
(omitled) 

Movl5  IoOgc  W 
Oct  b  to  Nov  14 
5epfl5.to0cti4 
Augl5to5eptl4 
JulylStoAugM 
JuneU-loJulijl5 
Mayl5loJunel4 
Aprlll5toMayl4 
M3rl5.toApnH4 
FeW5toMarI4 

^ 

;^ 

\ 

^ 

A 

^ 

k 

?^ 

Y 

^ 

^ 

P- 

A 

^ 

^ 

^ 

Jan.l5torebI4 

ggggg|g|§|ggg 

(1914) 

Figure  1 


Steadying  Employment  5 

rather  than  as  comprehensive  summaries  of  an  entire  situation. 
However,  this  fact  stands  out:  unemployment  is  permanent,  if 
not  steadily  increasing.  When  we  ordinarily  assume  that  men 
and  women  who  are  willing  and  able  to  work  are  minus  a  job  only 
in  times  of  unusual  and  widespread  industrial  depression — such 
as  we  experienced  during  the  last  winter — we  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  there  is  always,  even  in  the  most  prosperous  times,  a  large 
amount  of  unemployment  and  part-time  employment  for  these 
same  workers.  In  the  long  run,  this  permanent  or  "chronic"  un- 
employment totals  larger  than  the  unemployment  of  the  severe 
industrial  crises.  This  is  true  because  the  former  exists  continu- 
ously, year  after  year;  whereas  a  crisis  usually  occurs  only  once  in  a 
period  of  five,  eight  or  ten  years.  Moreover,  from  the  city's  stand- 
point, this  chronic  unemployment  is  of  greater  concern  because  it 
arises  chiefly  from  local  causes. 

The  Society  for  Organizing  Charity  testifies  that  there  is 
always  in  "good"  years  and  "bad"  alike,  a  considerable  number 
of  applicants  for  aid  who,  though  willing  and  able  to  work,  are 
forced  to  seek  charitable  assistance  because  of  the  impossibility 
of  securing  employment.  Fig.  1  shows  the  total  amount  of  re- 
lief granted  by  the  Society  for  Organizing  Charity  each  month 
during  1914  and  to  May,  1915;  and,  of  this  total,  the  percentage 
which  was  due  to  unemployment.  In  many  cases,  undoubtedly, 
other  causes  have  contributed  to  throw  these  applicants  onto  charity 
after  merely  a  brief  period  of  unemployment;  but  this  fact  does 
not  detract  from  the  evidence  shown  by  the  chart  of  a  considerable 
amount  of  unemployment  always  present. 

As  a  result  of  over  one  hundred  interviews  with  the  managers 
of  business  houses  and  social  workers,  and  as  a  result  of  studies 
made  in  individual  industrial  plants,  information  has  been  col- 
lected which  indicates  the  permanence  of  unemployment.  This 
also  indicates  roughly  those  industries  in  the  city  in  which  unem- 
ployment is  normally  a  large  factor. 

A.     The  Textile  Industry 

Of  Philadelphia  industries,  the  textile  and  clothing  manu- 
factories show  unemployment  and  part-time  employment  at  their 
worst.  In  the  textile  industries,  the  fact  which  immediately  strikes 
the  observer  is  that,  although  very  many  more  workers  are  unem- 


6  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

ployed  in  industrially  "bad"  years,  yet  there  is  always,  even  in  the 
most  prosperous  years,  a  very  considerable  percentage  of  the 
workers  who  are  either  entirely  idle  or  working  from  one  to  five 
days  a  week.  Mr.  R.  R.  P.  Bradford,  whose  sixteen  years'  ex- 
perience in  charge  of  the  "Lighthouse"  (a  social  center  for  the  better 
class  of  workers  in  Kensington)  has  given  him  an  unusual  oppor- 
tunity to  become  acquainted  with  the  facts,  says : 

We  make  the  mistake  of  assuming  that  unemployment  is  a  question  solely 
of  severe  bad  times.  It  is  true  that  conditions  are  worse  at  such  times — they 
even  approach  the  destructiveness  of  a  flood  or  an  earthquake.  But  it  is  true  that 
unemployment  and  part-time  employment  is  a  situation  that  is  with  us  to  a  very 
considerable  degree  practically  without  cessation.  If  it  is  not  one  industry,  it  is 
another.  If  one  miU  escapes,  another  is  hit.  The  fear  of  unemployment  and 
part-time  employment  hangs,  a  permanent  pall,  over  Kensington. 

It  is  worth  while  to  point  out  two  general  conditions  that 
especially  contribute  to  permanent  unemployment  in  the  textile 
industries.  First  is  the  constant  shift  of  demand  from  one  type 
of  textile  fabric  to  another.  The  industries  that  have  been  built 
up  to  supply  products  no  longer  demanded  by  the  market  must 
gradually  die  out,  or  readjust  themselves  to  a  new  demand.  Dur- 
ing the  decadence  of  these  industries,  the  numbers  of  workers  that 
have  been  attracted  to  the  industry  is  greater  than  can  now  be 
kept  busy.  These  employes  hesitate  to  leave  the  industry  for  some 
other,  probably  uncertain  and  unaccustomed,  line:  conditions 
may  improve  in  their  own  trade.  Moreover,  under  existing  cir- 
cumstances in  industrial  plants,  they  feel  that  the  skill  acquired  by 
years  of  work  in  their  own  trade  will  be  sacrificed,  and  many  are 
too  old  to  risk  the  change.  An  excess  of  workers  is,  therefore, 
characteristic  of  a  declining  industry,  A  long  period  of  part  time 
and  of  unemployment,  often  running  into  years,  results. 

A  second  condition  that  contributes  to  irregularity  in  em- 
ployment, and  is  very  much  more  important  now  than  it  was  twenty 
years  ago,  is  the  growing  tendency — especially  in  hosiery,  higher 
grade  carpets  and  fancy  dress  goods — to  manufacture  solely  "on 
orders."  Twenty  years  ago  a  manufacturer  made  carpet  or  hosiery 
or  cloth  and  then  went  out  and  sold  that  carpet,  or  hosiery  or  cloth. 
Today  the  order  comes  in  for  a  particular  design,  with  a  certain 
kind  of  yarn  or  silk  and  a  certain  number  of  threads  to  the  inch,  and 
the  manufacturer  makes  that  particular  order.     Formerly  a  manu- 


Steadying  Employment  7 

facturer  produced  standard  makes  of  his  particular  line  and  simply 
piled  up  stock  in  his  warehouse  in  the  off-season.  When  the  orders 
began  to  come  in  thick  and  fast,  at  the  proper  season,  he  was  ready 
for  them  and  simply  used  up  his  stock.  Today  manufacturers 
make,  as  a  rule,  very  little  to  stock  and  run  chiefly  on  orders.  The 
result  is  that  manufacturing  has  become  nearly  as  irregular  as  the 
orders.  When  an  order  comes  in,  or  especially  when  orders  come 
in  thick  and  fast  at  the  proper  season,  there  is  a  period  of  feverish 
activity  until  they  are  delivered,  and  then  probably  a  long  period 
of  total  or  partial  unemployment.  A  number  of  workers  were  in- 
terviewed in  their  homes  in  a  block  in  which  live  the  more  indus- 
trious middle  class  workers  in  Kensington  (hereinafter  referred 
to  as  Block  "K").  The  experience  of  one  man  (a  warper)  in  this 
block  represents  a  situation  prevailing  in  a  large  percentage  of  the 
textile  factories. 

"The  second  week  after  I  was  employed  at ,  I 

was  called  on  to  work  overtime  four  nights  till  9  o'clock  at  night. 
On  Saturday  of  that  week,  I,  with  four  others,  was  laid  off  for  lack 
of  work." 

The  prevalence  of  unemployment  is  forcibly  illustrated  in  the 
different  branches  of  the  textile  industry  in  Philadelphia. 

1.  Lace  and  Lace  Curtains.  The  last  ten  years  has  witnessed  a 
steady  increase  in  unemployment  in  the  lace,  and  particularly  in 
the  lace  curtain,  business.  There  is  no  longer  the  demand  for  the 
lace  curtains  which  fifteen  j^ears  ago  adorned  parlor  and  bedroom 
windows  alike.  Consequently  the  lace  mills  have  rarely  worked 
full  time  during  the  last  six  years.  The  gradual  decline  of  output 
is  illustrated  by  the  figures  of  one  of  the  large  lace  mills  in  Philadel- 
phia (see  fig.  22y.  It  is  claimed  that  some  mills  contain  a  large 
number  of  expensive  machines  that  have  never  been  used.  Since 
both  the  employers  and  the  lace  weavers'  union  attempt  to  dis- 
tribute what  work  there  is  among  as  many  workers  as  possible 
rather  than  assist  a  portion  of  the  employes  to  new  trades,  permanent 
part-time  employment  results.  A  second  feature  of  the  lace  in- 
dustry is  its  extreme  irregularity.  A  new  style  in  ladies'  garments 
may  make  a  sudden  demand  for  a  large  amount  of  lace.  The 
United  States  Government  may  send  in  once  a  year  a  large  lumped 
order  for  mosquito  netting  for  the  Panama  Canal  Zone.  With 
3  Figure  facing  p.  60. 


8  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

plenty  of  machines  and  plenty  of  men  already  working  part  time  or 
out  on  the  streets  waiting  for  a  call,  and  a  premium  placed  on  prompt 
delivery,  the  firm  rushes  the  order  out  in  a  short  time — and  the 
next  month  pay  envelopes  flatten  out. 

This  condition  of  permanent  unemployment  among  the  lace 
workers  is  very  generally  testified  to.  The  head  of  one  of  the 
largest  lace  mills  in  Philadelphia  was  asked  whether,  in  his  opinion, 
the  lace  and  lace  curtain  workers  had  on  the  average  worked  three 
fifths  of  .their  time  in  the  last  five  years.  He  said  doubtfully,  "I 
think  so."  The  doubt  in  his  words  and  in  his  voice  implied  that 
they  certainly  could  not  have  averaged  much  above  that.  A  lace 
weaver  interviewed  in  Block  "K"  asserted  that  he  had  been  working 
five  hours  a  day  for  the  last  five  years.  This  statement  was  in- 
dependently confirmed  by  neighbors.  The  secretary  of  the  National 
Lace  Weavers'  Association  (one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  fair- 
minded  labor  men  I  have  met)  reports  that,  in  his  opinion,  the 
average  lace  worker,  in  the  last  five  years,  has  not  made  ten  weeks 
altogether  in  which  he  worked  full  time. 

Statistics  of  dues  kept  by  the  local  Lace  Weavers'  Union 
show  the  large  amount  of  time  that  is  lost  by  the  lace  weavers. 
The  union  has  a  graduated  system  for  the  payment  of  dues.  Prior 
to  January,  1914,  a  member  who  made  over  $15  in  any  one  week 
paid  75c.  a  week  dues  to  the  union.  Members  who  made  from  $7 
to  $15  a  week  paid  50c.  dues.  Those  who  earned  less  than  $7  a 
week  were  excused  for  the  week.  In  1914,  the  wage  limits  which 
form  the  basis  for  the  different  classes  of  dues  was  changed.  Since 
that  time  those  earning  over  $18  a  week  paid  75c.  dues;  from  $10 
to  $18,  50c.  dues;  under  $10,  no  dues.  To  be  excused  in  whole  or 
part  from  payment  of  dues,  a  member  must  produce  his  pay  slip 
each  week.  The  dues  paid  for  each  and  every  week  are  recorded 
in  the  roll  book.  The  records  thus  kept  appear  to  be  accurate  and 
reliable.  These  records,  therefore,  show  clearly  what  members 
received  less  than  $7  (or  $10),  from  $7  to  $15  (or  from  $10  to  $18) 
and  over  $15  (or  over  $18)  per  week.  Both  employers  and  em- 
ployes testify  that  "almost  any  kind  of  lace  weaver  can  earn  $20 
a  week  if  running  full  time,  and  they  frequently  make  over  $30  a 
week  if  running  full."  The  vice-president  of  one  of  the  largest  lace 
mills  in  Philadelphia  writes  as  follows  regarding  the  full-time  wages 
among  lace  weavers: 


Steadying  Employment  9 

If  all  the  weavers  on  the  Nottingham  lace  curtain  machines  were  divided 
into  three  general  classes,  low  grade,  medium  and  high  grade,  both  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  abihty  of  the  weaver  and  the  gauge  of  the  machine  on  which  they 
work,  and  bearing  in  mind  that  all  Nottingham  lace  curtain  machines  run  at  the 
same  speed  whether  fine  or  coarse,  competently  or  incompetently  managed,  we 
believe  the  following  would  be  a  fair  average  earning: 

Low  grade  Nottingham  lace  curtain  weaver $18.00  per  week 

Medium  grade  Nottingham  lace  curtain  weaver 21 .00  per  week 

High  grade  Nottingham  lace  curtain  weaver 24 .  00  per  week 

When  it  comes  to  a  lace  weaver,  we  cannot  give  the  earnings  with  the  same 
exactness,  as  a  lace  weaver  may  be  skilled  in  one  class  of  lace  work  and  grossly 
incompetent  in  another.  Most  lace  weavers  have  learned  their  trade  in  a  localitj' 
making  almost  entirely  one  class  of  goods,  and  under  the  new  condition  of  an 
American  industry  that  must  be  resourceful  to  make  any  class  of  goods  as  styles 
may  change  we  are  encountering  great  difficulties.  Aside  from  this  fact,  the 
weavers  here  are  paid  under  a  modified  English  card  wliich  puts  a  high  rate  on  the 
bobbin  fining  goods  for  which  England  is  preeminent  and  a  very  mixed  card  rate 
on  the  independent  beam  goods  made  almost  entirely  in  France. 

The  best  approximation  that  we  can  make  we  would  report  as  follows: 

Low  grade  lace  weavers $20 .  00  per  week 

Medium  grade  lace  weavers 25 .  00  per  week 

High  grade  lace  weavers $30 .00  to  35 .  00  per  week 

We  would  like  it  understood,  however,  that  this  is  only  an  approximation, 
as  on  plain  bobbin  fining  nets,  which  require  less  skill  than  perhaps  any  other  class 
of  goods,  they  sometimes  get  a  weekly  earning  of  more  than  $35.00  per  week. 
This  is  one  of  the  contradictions  of  the  card  under  which  we  pay. 

The  union  roll  book  statistics,  therefore,  indicate  roughly  the  amount 
of  part-time  employment  and  unemployment  in  the  lace  business. 
These  statistics  were  compiled  from  the  union's  roll  book,  covering 
between  300  and  400  members.  These  records  show  that  from 
January  1,  1909,  to  January  1,  1914,  13  per  cent  of  the  cases  of 
members  reporting  showed  a  weekly  wage  of  less  than  S7;  30  per 
cent  earned  from  S7  to  $15  per  week,  and  only  57  per  cent  earned 
over  $15  per  week.  This  result  is  shown  graphically"  in  fig.  2.  In 
other  words,  in  only  57  per  cent  of  the  cases  reported  in  all  of  the 
working  weeks  was  anything  approaching  full  time  made  in  that 
period.  In  43  per  cent  of  the  cases,  three-quarter  time  or  less  had 
been  worked;  and  in  13  per  cent  of  the  cases,  the  members  must  have 
worked  not  over  one-third  time.  Since  January,  1914,  when  75c. 
dues  were  required  only  when  the  weaver  earned  $18  or  over,  only 
30  per  cent  of  the  cases  have  paid  the  highest  dues.     In  other  words. 


c 

1 

i 

0 

t 

c 

0   — 

l  n 

D    ^ 
.(ft  l2 

!  ^ 

(0     0 
-1  U 

.£  ? 
a  - 

V 
V 

cPO 


u 

k- 

0 


o 
o 

> 


O 

o 

■#" 
O 

O; 


O     4, 


0    J3 


<D     ID 


0    rt  '^  0 

o    w  ^  ^ 

^        '^  C  r. 

rt     (D  £  vD 

X  -  -^z  rt) 

-^     fD  —  ^ 

O  ^  0) 

> 


0)    0)  ' 

a  >  3 
-c  --'0 


^^8 


0  5 


5 


-  T5  en  ;i 

J  C  C    <i) 

7  ^  ?     '-' 

'^  rt  ^     ftl 

3  °  ^   -^ 


0   0 

O  x: 

6  +- 


■  V  •  — 
o  -C 

ti 

o  c 
<J   rt) 


.  0 

w  in 

c  f) 

•I  ^ 


v 


cu 


<ft      L 


0    ft) 


0  _^ 
1ft    0 

"^•^ 

^"^ 
+-  C 
o  •  - 

'A 

•5-5 

-6:6 


.£ 

+- 

(ft 

I  -^ 

J-  w 

.ft    w 

Lc  > 

+  01 
m    C 

^    0 

I'?     0 


d) 

lO 

^ 

js: 

<U 

(J 

(U 

CI 

^ 

^    ^ 

51  01  Dl 

0  [J  0 

^  ^  I 

-  0)  _- 

(t  g  n. 


5    "   ^  :i^ 


<^  -c 

1 1 

ft)  -0 

i^    0 

+-    w 
a 


^^o 


-?] 


(U 


0:!     Q;    f^l 


0 


C   Si 

Q-  rt> 

0     3 


0  Ol 

(1)  .£ 

-t-  d) 

0  C 


6.>     ^ 

-t  j:     dl 

^C  -0. 
> 


t     3 

"D  -^-    X!      . 


w  ~-^  d)  • 


D   (U   i;  0 


r     ^     ^ 
C     n  — 


^  0^  Tl 
1^ 


cQ 


J) 

4^    ^               L 

1 

>  ra 

■*-      lO 

y.2  in     f« 

1/)    . 

0-4;        .w 

t'    D 

-  %  i    ^ 

^■0 

V     ^ 

Jl    73     0           (0 

(H 

.0  -5 

"0    -     *0          0) 

1) 

C    0 

r  Q^ 

i^  in 

J) 
(1) 

Q}      0) 

^   Ed   ^  -to  d  j: 

^   ^ 

1^ 

^     0 
-1- 

ii- 

0 

T5 

^;iV  -^-^-^ 

C 

0     CI 

C 

0 

+- 

•— 

/"""^ 

CP 

,0           ^                  (U^ 

fo 

s. 

u 

ID 

?2 

lO 

3i# 

^0 

^ 

<y# 

\B 

CQ 

i§ 

rO 

• 

0)    — 

t04 

s. 

< 

^  (b 

tO 

* 

04" 

12  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

since  January,  1914,  anything  like  full  time  has  been  reported  in  ap- 
proximately 30  per  cent  of  the  individual  working  weeks.  Since 
January,  1914,  wages  of  from  $10  to  $18  a  week  were  reported  in 
36  per  cent  of  the  cases;  and  34  per  cent  of  the  cases  reported  less 
than  $10  a  week.  In  other  words,  stating  it  conservatively,  in  70 
per  cent  of  the  cases  of  individual  working  weeks  during  1914  and 
to  July,  1915,  the  weavers  must  have  worked  not  over  nine-tenths 
time;  and  in  one  third  of  the  cases  of  individual  working  weeks  re- 
ported, the  time  worked  may  have  been  none  and  could  not  have 
been  over  half-time. 

The  union  statistics  show  also  that  the  low  dues  do  not  come 
from  a  few  particular  individuals,  but  come  fairly  evenly  from 
all — indicating  that  difficulty  which  all  have  in  securing  work, 
and  not  low  earning  power  of  a  few,  is  responsible. 

These  results  are  shown  graphically  in  fig.  3.  Figs.  4  and  5 
show  for  each  week  in  the  last  six  years  and  one-half  the  number  of 
members  paying  each  different  class  of  dues.  Since  the  lace- 
weaving  trade  is  completely  unionized,  these  figures  represent 
the  whole  trade.  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  figures 
include  weavers  only  and  that  there  are  a  great  many  others 
(about  5,000  in  all)  employed  in  the  lace  industry  in  Philadelphia. 
These  running  charts  show  great  irregularity  in  the  size  of  the 
groups  earning  the  different  classes  of  wages.  Frequently,  for 
a  month,  80  per  cent  of  the  cases  will  report  over  $15  per  week. 
Shortly  after,  will  follow  a  month  in  which  only  40  to  50  per  cent 
of  the  cases  will  report  over  $15  per  week,  and  from  10  to  20  per 
cent  of  the  cases  will  report  less  than  $7  per  week.  Such  extreme 
irregularity  Can  be  occasioned  only  by  extreme  irregularity  in 
employment. 

2.  Carpet.  The  amount  of  unemployment  permanently 
existing  in  the  carpet  industry,  although  relatively  smaller  than 
in  the  lace  business,  is  very  considerable.  The  rapid  rise  and 
fall  of  different  branches  of  the  same  industry,  which  causes  a 
long  period  of  part-time  employment  in  the  decadent  stages  of  an 
industry,  is  also  marked  in  the  carpet  business.  During  the  last 
15  years,  the  development  of  cheap  grass  and  other  kind  of  rugs 
has  led  to  the  almost  total  extinction  of  the  manufacture  of  "in- 
grain" carpet  which  was  once  the  chief  kind  manufactured  in 
Philadelphia.     After    a    long    period    of    part-time    employment. 


r» 


Steadying  Employment 


13 


many  of  the  firms  who  formerly  manufactured  "ingrain"  carpet 
have  either  gone  out  of  business,  or  replaced  ingrain  machinery  with 
machinery  to  manufacture  Wilton,  Brussels,  Axminster,  or  tapestry 
carpets  and  rugs.  When  rugs  began  to  replace  carpet  in  popular 
esteem,  the  Wilton  and  Brussels  carpet  manufacturing  concerns 
grew  busy,  expanded  and  took  much  of  the  business  away  from 
the  Axminster  and  tapestry  carpet  manufacturers.  Recently  the 
makers  of  Axminster  and  tapestry  carpets  have  come  to  manufacture 


Showing  nnmber  of  lace  weavers  who,  each  week 
from  Jan.  1911  to  June  1915  received ;-  under  $10  —  ^^ 
Erom$10to$18  — ^S 

Over  $18     CZD  t' 

Figures  at  side  of  page  indicate  number  of  weavers. 
Note  that  in  some  better  weeks  over  65  Jf   of  the  employ- 
ees make  over  $  18  per  week,  and  in  others  less  than  10 
per  cent  make  over  $18,  and  sixty  per  cent  less  than  $  10 
|,.Tjweek.     (Chart  pivparcd  by  R,P._&  R.C.) 


■'v^- 


vv 


a/ 


M 


I'JIS 


FiGUBE  5 


very  satisfactory  rugs.  Since  these  rugs  are  cheaper  than  the 
Wilton  and  Brussels  rugs,  some  of  the  trade  has  in  recent  years 
swung  back  to  these  firms. 

The  tendency  to  manufacture  solely  to  order  has  served  to 
increase  the  irregularity  in  production  and  employment.  The 
manager  of  one  of  the  largest  Brussels  and  Wilton  carpet  con- 
cerns in  Philadelphia  says,  "I  can  remember  25  or  30  years  ago. 


14  The  Arinals  of  the  American  Academy 

when  we  used  to  manufacture  to  stock  in  the  off  season.  We 
would  pile  our  warehouses  full  of  stock;  sometimes  we  had  as 
much  as  $100,000  worth  piled  up.  Then  when  the  season  opened, 
we  would  hire  all  the  carts  and  boys  we  could  lay  hands  on  and 
haul  the  stuff  away  to  the  station.  Now  we  hardly  manufacture 
to  stock  at  all."  For  two  months  in  the  spring  and  two  months 
in  the  fall  this  firm  manufactures  chiefly  for  samples.  Charts 
showing  the  wide  seasonal  variation  in  the  number  employed  and 
in  the  average  wage  per  week  in  each  department  of  this  firm  are 
shown  in  figs.  6  and  7.  Note  that  in  off  seasons  and  off  years, 
not  only  is  the  number  of  employes  considerably  reduced  but 
also  the  average  wage  per  employe.  The  records  kept  by  the  union 
in  this  industry  furnish  little  or  no  measurement  of  the  amount 
of  unemployment.  The  secretary  of  the  Weavers'  National 
Association  (with  headquarters  in  Philadelphia)  estimates  that  the 
union  members  of  the  industry  have  lost  25  per  cent  of  their  time 
in  the  last  five  years. 

In  order  to  throw  light  upon  the  amount  of  time  lost  through 
a  period  of  years  in  one  representative  Axminster  firm,  an  in- 
tensive study  was  made  among  the  piece  workers  in  a  large  well- 
known  Kensington  firm  manufacturing  medium  grade  Axminster 
rugs.  (Frequent  reference  will  be  made  to  the  facts  secured  from 
the  study  of  this  firm  which  will,  hereafter,  be  referred  to  as 
Axminster  Carpet  Mill  "A.")  The  records  of  this  firm  were 
kept  in  such  a  way  that  the  amount  of  working  time  spent  by 
piece  workers  in  the  mill  could  be  ascertained.  In  no  year  since 
1910  have  the  employes  actually  on  the  payroll  of  this  firm  failed 
to  spend  at  least  21  per  cent  of  the  entire  year's  working  time  out- 
side of  the  mill.  During  the  entire  period,  1910  to  1915,  28  per 
cent  of  the  time  was  lost  by  the  employes  of  this  mill.  Since  less 
than  2  per  cent  of  this  lost  time  was  due  to  vacations,  we  may  assume 
that  at  least  26  per  cent  of  the  working  time  was  lost  for  reasons 
other  than  vacations.  The  time  lost  through  sickness  or  voluntary 
absence  of  workers  did  not  amount  to  over  3  per  cent  of  the  total 
working  time.  The  relation  of  time  lost  to  time  made  each  year 
is  shown  graphically  in  fig.  8.  Nor  does  this  measure  complete 
the  amount  of  unemployment  occasioned  by  this  one  mill,  be- 
cause the  time  lost  by  employes  in  the  mill  waiting  for  material 
or  other  reasons  is  not  included,  nor  is  the  time  lost  by  those  who 


w 


y L 


r 


I,  'n-fint 


3I89AVaodsjtiiipaS 


^gt,  ^iTjaBg 


m 


<    7^ 


^    o  — _ 

=    ,     ro  '^-  —  -^      c 


CQ 


■^  °i  !  9  ^ 

Cl.  <iJ     j-»     :3  -CS  1^ 

^    *r>   o  '^  -1—    ^ 
IV    o  —  «^    cJ 


rT>.  _ 


£■'5 


<n 


o    in 
3^  o     3 


to 


cQ|fO 


\J 


'^    "^TZ    ji    o    ni 
,^  !^  «  r   ^ 

n        o  o  2 


c 


cQ 


O— O     Q»     ca)     3^ 
0^3  —  ■,-    /O 


CQ 


Steadying  Employment 


17 


are  laid  off  whenever  times  begin  to  grow  slack.  For  example, 
the  force  was  reduced  20  per  cent  from  July,  1914,  to  April,  1915. 
Moreover,  the  time  lost  through  daily  and  hourly  interruptions, 
which  were  not  considered  of  sufficient  size  to  warrant  the  workers 
being  sent  to  their  homes,  does  not  enter  into  these  figures.  Charts 
showing  in  detail  the  time  lost  each  week  in  this  concern  is  shown 
in  fig.  9.     Where  conditions  vary  as  widely  as  they  do  in  the  textile 


;''      !*              1     'j          ''              '         '  '     f\     '       1" 'lulbra.  after  the  curves  were  constructed.         i; 

'           \         A|       1                                n         /  (         1 ',.  airiallcBt  firui  makes  iugrain  carpet  only; 
-(-           I       y            I                               '1        '    \       llicrs  make  tupestrj,  ingrain  and  vdvet.        ZI 

i        !■ ; ,    .     h    /                                ■  '  '  1  ■  '  ' 

■*-     -     ~hy                    -+---M 

:::::::::      v-i^                                            3 

inn  *:::;::_-                     -^ ; 

iW    ;;;        ;                                i- '                         i                                                               . 

f ::: t__         ■                   h                        i                   A ' 

"::::::           i::     _  _-             a                              il        ^         ,'U- 

i\       W      ^  \    \                    ,  1  1  fi'  1  '  1  '1  1  1  1  1  /  ii 

1        /    1      \          \    \   t'                        M '  a'   '     1  \ 

-       »                 i                   1   1                          T         '        T       / 

-K           ----      :::it:  :::::::::::._. t.Jflt            zliJn_      V 

<5             :::        ::k:  ::S::::::::;::::;  :_i           :  iiti 

±       --J--    -;-"-;;;-;;;;-;    -;^               ^-    tlfej 

: ::  :              ::  ::: ::::::::::::::    jr            t  i 

:    -  _                 ::± :::      :          ;      ,'                   i 

;±    -- —                 —      -      :_-              \A   /                   zt 

:.:::::;;       ::  ..^:      :::-v — :::::;::  ::       ;  tzTZ    ::::- 

zi w    C           -  ^,-    ::;::;:  :         it  i::_    :::: 

en  1       \                            -    /       \                         Jv             -.      /               1    L    -L 

5"          \               A  /  \  /                   1          \ys           /      - 

MjA/V':           A          '^^:::-::::         3it±:::, 

\/\  A    /V    ^              /               ::::::::         ^i..:::  :__:  _r 

r       ^\  ft  /  ^                  /               t  z:::::  A    lit —    / 

V         TT        J       1                                      \     /          /\         V  7 

V''Ml'        /                                              \'         f  \     •    \/ 

inl                                                                                                        !   ■   1                                            [:''''' 

-        1  11                             M        :  '  ^                  '  ,      ; 

-  ->  -                -  i~  J                              1 

'■":  "  -  ~'    '"    ""''^           _!,   "-^      1  ,---^          ,\  .\ 

:_:_-                 -      s           .■-.'.     1,'      -     /-,'-,'.                   y 

::;  :.                      -^      -'i  ^^  \  /.       \  /    "          \              .  -- 

"  « 1913 ?  « 1914 3. « 1915 

Figure  10 


industry,  it  is  impossible  to  say  that  the  figures  of  any  one  mill  are 
typical  for  all  the  textile  industries.  It  should  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  conditions  in  this  mill  are  among  the  most 
favorable  for  steady  employment.  The  business  is  not  highly 
seasonal  and  the  goods  are  not  so  subject  to  the  influences  of  extreme 
style,  that  the  firm  is  forced  to  manufacture  solely  on  orders.  On 
the  contrary,  the  articles  are  sufficiently  well  standardized  to  enable 


18  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

the  firm  to  make  for  stock  up  to  the  limit  of  its  financial  capacity, 
which  is  high.  The  experience  and  general  ability  of  the  manage- 
ment of  this  concern  is  above  the  average. 

Figure  10  gives  the  figures  showing  the  great  irregularity  in  the 
payroll  of  a  number  of  carpet  firms  from  week  to  week  for  the  last 
two  years  and  one-half.  Such  constant  irregularity  as  this  in  total 
payroll  implies  a  considerable  degree  of  irregularity  in  employment. 

The  number  of  wage-earners  in  the  carpet  industry  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  therefore  the  number  affected'  by  this  irregularity' 
in  employment,  is  approximately  11,000. 

3.  The  Cloth  Industry.  The  cloth  industry  includes  a  wide 
variety  of  cloth  products  from  cheap  cotton  and  woolen  print 
cloth  through  all  kinds  of  worsted  and  woolen  goods  to  women's 
and  men's  wear  and  fancy  dress  goods.  The  development  of 
textile  manufacturing  in  the  South,  with  its  advantages  to  the 
employer  of  cheap  labor,  has  led  the  manufacture  of  cheap  cotton 
cloth  to  be  transferred  to  the  South  within  the  last  20  years. 
In  the  same  period  there  has  been  a  big  falling  off  in  the  demand 
for  cheap  woolen  cloth,  which  was  once  one  of  the  big  cloth  items 
manufactured  in  Philadelphia.  The  high  grade  woolens  and 
worsted  are  made  chiefly  in  the  big  mills  of  New  England.  These 
considerations  have  led  Philadelphians  to  become,  to  a  considera- 
ble degree,  manufacturers  of  "novelty"  goods  or  fancy  dress 
goods  of  various  kinds.  In  a  great  part  of  this  fancy  dress  goods 
business,  production  is  exceedingly  irregular  because  of  the  in- 
fluence of  style.  The  goods  are  not  standardized  and  they  depend 
on  sudden  veerings  of  style  to  create  a  new  and  sudden  demand. 
When  an  order  comes,  rush  delivery  is  demanded.  When  the 
order  is  filled,  workers  are  idle.  Many  kinds  of  machines  are 
required  to  manufacture  the  different  varieties  of  dress  goods. 
In  many  mills  hands  are  trained  to  work  on  one  kind  of  machine 
only.  When  a  rush  order  comes  it  usually  involves  but  one  kind 
of  weaving  machines.  The  result  is  that  workers  on  one  set  of 
machines  will  be  working  under  high  pressure,  perhaps  overtime; 
while  workers  on  other  machines  in  the  same  room  are  on  the 
streets  from  lack  of  work.  Two  weeks  later  conditions  may  be 
reversed. 

One  small  manufacturer  of  novelties  reported  that  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  above  conditions  he  had  not  worked  more  than  50 


Steadying  Employment 


19 


per  cent  of  his  machines  at  any  one  time  in  the  last  three  years. 
Some  idea  of  the  irregularity  in  employment  in  such  a  plant  may 
be  obtained  from  fig.  11,  which  shows  the  variation  in  the  number 
employed  and  the  variation  in  average  pay  per  weaver  at  each 
two-weekly  pay  da>  since  February  16,  1912. 

The  figures  of  another  large  well-known  concern,  manufac- 


o 

0  40 


Chart  showing  the  variation  on  a  percentage  basis  each  biweekly  pay  pci  ioJ , 
of  the  total  number  of  employees  and  the  total  payroll  of  tlie  weaving  department 
of  one  small  cloth  mill  manufacturing  women's  fancy  dress  goods  and  novelties. 
Curves  are  drawn  on  a  percentage  basis  so  as  to  avoid  disclosure  of  actual  figures. 
Note  the  great  irregularity  of  employment,-!argely  occasioned  by  the  influence 
of  style. 

Number  of  employees  —^^—^^^—  Total  payroll 


Figure  11 


turing  women's  high-grade  fancy  dress  goods,  indicated  also  the 
extreme  irregularity  of  employment  in  this  industry.  Fig.  12 
shows  the  wide  variation  in  the  number  of  looms  running  each 
month  from  January,  1910,  to  June,  1915.  It  does  not  follow  that 
the  looms  classed  as  "working"  were  running  steadily  during  the 
months  indicated.  Figures  for  the  period  1910-1915  show  that, 
each  month,  on  the  average,  36  per  cent  of  the  looms  did  not 


20 


The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 


operate  at  all;  64  per  cent  were  running,  but  not  necessarily  con- 
tinuously.    This  result  is  shown  graphically  in  fig.  13. 

4.  Hosiery.  Lost  time  is  normally  less  typical  of  the 
hosiery  industry  than  of  the  three  branches  of  the  textile  indus- 
try  mentioned   above.     Even   in   normal,    as   well   as   abnormal 


r :""":::::::::: :":  — :":::"":":"": 

:      ::::::::.[    t_  .                   .  --t..... jz 

on              ^         ::::::.  .i: . ^   ..   ._. -    _  . 

tr         --    -    -       -       - —     ---- -                                     

rr,         \t         ::_.::::      :              _ -. 

ij"      "     ::  — ::_:_.  :_        _                   _-  t   .    _     _  _ 

^                  -------         J       --         ;;;;;;    :: .       _       -    - 

(/)                                "                         "       ~       -              __         

O        ;             Chart  showing  the  number  of  looms  running  each, month  from  January    : 
O        -  1910  to  May  1915,  in  a  large  textile  mill  making  women's  high  grade  fancy          -_ 

-  dress  goods.  Note  the  great  irregularity.-It  does  not  foUow  that,  because  a         ; 
20  ;  loom  is  marked  as  "running"  for  a  certain  month  that  it  has  been  running         ; 

;  that  mouth  to  full  capacity.  It  merely  means  that,  that  loom  was  running  ect    p 

-  some  time  during  the  month.  This  curve,  therefore,  may  represent  a  considerable 

-  understatement  of  the  irregularity  of  employment  and  the  amount  of  unem-     : 

-  ployment  in  this  mill  After  the  chart  was  constructed  percentage  figures          ; 
;  were  substituted  at  the  left  of  the  chart  in  place  of  the  figures  showing  the        ; 

-  actual  number  of  looms  running. 

1  1  M  1 1 1  h  1  1  i  1  1  M  1  1  1  1  1  1 1 1 1 1 1  M  1  1  1  >  1  M  M  1  1 1 1 1  M  1  1  II  1  1  M  1  M  1  1 ' 1 1 

n        II  1  11   1  1  1  1  II  1  1   1  1  1   1  1   1  1  II   1  II  II  1  II  1  ll  1  1  1  11  II   1  M  1  1  M   1  1  1   1  1  1  1  ll  1  1  ll  1 

"  1^1910  —4^ 1911 ^ 1912  — ^< 1913  -4 1914— *J*  2  S 

Figure  12 


times,  however,  the  business  is  characterized  by  considerable 
irregularity.  This  fact  is  brought  out  on  the  chart  in  fig.  25,^ 
which  shows  the  variations  in  total  payrolls  of  seven  of  the  leading 
hosiery  firms  in  Philadelphia  for  the  last  two  and  a  half  years. 

In  this  industry  a  manufacturer  may  keep  his  girls  busy  on 
*  Page  80. 


Steadying  Employment  21 

stock  in  dull  times  if  he  desires,  but  his  finishing  department  is 
thrown  out,  because  goods  can  be  packed  only  on  order  under 
present  conditions  (in  most  cases),  because  the  manufacturer  puts 
up  goods  under  the  jobbers'  trade-marks.  Conditions  would  be 
improved  if  all  manufacturers  agreed  to  manufacture  under  one 
trade-mark — his  own. 

This  statement  of  conditions  in  the  lace,  carpet,  cloth  and 
hosiery  manufactures  touches  but  the  high  spots  of  chronic  un- 
employment in  the  textile  industry.  In  other  branches  of  the 
industry — upholstery,  for  example — the  conditions  are  just  as 
characteristic. 

B.     The  Clothing  Industry 

The  clothing  industry  ranks  with  the  textile  industry  in  the 
seriousness  of  its  unemployment  situation.  The  men's  and 
women's  clothing  manufacturers  each  employ  approximately 
15,000  persons  in  Philadelphia  (mostly  Hebrews),  of  whom  the 
majority  are  women.  The  manufacture  of  women's  clothing  is 
the  more  irregular.  Increase  of  unemployment  here  has  been  due  to 
the  same  vagaries  of  style  responsible  for  irregularity  in  the  cloth 
business.  Changes  of  styles  have  made  it  possible  to  manufacture 
only  at  certain  seasons.  The  very  rapid  increase  in  the  frequency 
of  style-changes,  that  has  characterized  the  last  two  years,  has 
served  to  break  up  even  the  regularity  of  irregular  seasons  and 
substitute  a  business  characterized  by  sudden  spurts  followed  by 
unemployment — in  an  order  so  irregular  that  it  is  impossible  to  be 
predicted.  The  Women's  Garment  Manufacturers'  Association 
reports  that  five  years  ago,  if  business  conditions  were  normal, 
there  would  be  two  big  seasons — a  spring  and  a  fall  season.  Of 
these  two  seasons,  the  fall  season  was  much  the  larger.  In  both 
seasons,  however,  there  was  but  one  main  standard  style  for  each 
line  of  garments.  In  preparing  for  the  fall  season,  samples  were 
made  up  in  April,  and  the  salesmen  went  on  the  road  with  these 
samples  in  May.  Work  on  the  orders  sent  in  by  the  salesmen  was 
begun  in  the  factories  in  late  June  or  July.  This  season  continued 
until  Thanksgiving,  with  July  and  August  as  the  busiest  months. 
During  December  little  was  done  in  the  factories,  except  to  make 
up  samples  for  the  spring  season.  Salesmen  went  out  "on  the 
road"  early  in  January.     Orders  began  to  come  in  at  once;  the 


i-     rt) 

~c  — 

no  '■  ^ 

— ■  ;  C 


O    ro 
—   o 


o    *- 


■^    no 


--      3 

O     <TJ 

-^.  E 

(P  -  ■ 

rt)     O 

-c:    o 


^  -b 


^    0) 

!^  4-:  .1 

CJ        ^    - 

Ic     > 


a> 


E.c  ±:  2- 


■^     D^    rt) 
-  ~    J^ 

5  ^£ 

"T^  tJ    1— 

,n)   o  ■: 

v^  +-    c: 
^   2    0 


o 

•73 

«n 

ro 


C 

m 
I 

_c 

o 


c 


01 


cQ 


"^.UOUi  2>>»lj.\i^  2\||  ^|p1 


|««thern  C«l>f«fni«  Edison  Con\f\*9 


Steadying  Employment  23 

factories  started  and  ran  nearly  to  capacity  until  Easter.  From 
Easter  until  June  or  July  little  was  done  except  the  manufacture  of 
samples.  It  is  estimated  by  the  secretary  of  the  Women's  Gar- 
ment Manufacturers'  Association  that  during  this  off  season  in 
the  spring,  as  well  as  during  the  fall  (from  Thanksgiving  to  early 
January),  the  plants  ran  less  than  20  per  cent  of  capacity.  The 
description  of  the  seasonal  variation  of  employment  is  confirmed 
by  the  union.  Formerly  many  of  the  least  skilled  help  were  laid  off 
altogether  during  the  off  seasons.  The  rest  of  the  help  spent  their 
time  in  the  factories,  working  when  an  occasional  garment  order 
came  in  or  simply  waiting.  On  September  10,  1914,  an  agreement 
was  entered  into  by  the  Garment  Manufacturers'  Association  and 
the  union  that  provided  that  whatever  work  there  is  during  the 
off  season  shall  be  divided  equally  among  all  the  employes  in  the 
unionized  branches  of  the  industry.  The  outcome  is  that,  during  the 
off  seasons,  approximately  the  usual  quota  of  employes  is  in  the 
plant,  but  they  spend  four  times  as  long  waiting  for  a  garment  to 
appear  as  they  do  working  on  the  garment  after  it  is  in  their  hands. 
Not  many  of  the  employes  secure  any  other  work  in  the  off  season. 
A  few  get  employment  in  the  department  stores  during  the  Christ- 
mas rush. 

During  the  last  year  or  eighteen  months,  changes  in  fashion 
have  become  much  more  frequent.  No  longer  has  the  rule  "one 
style,  one  season"  held.  During  the  fall  of  1914  there  were  four 
distinct  changes.  These  were  noticeable  in  the  great  variety  of 
coats  and  suits  worn  by  women.  Styles  followed  on  the  heels  of 
each  other  so  fast  that  it  was  impossible  for  women  to  keep  up.^ 

This  situation  means  complete  disorganization  of  whatever 
regularity  there  has  been  in  an  already  irregular  business.  Buyers 
buy  sparingly  of  each  style  in  anticipation  of  a  new  one.  The  season 
is,  therefore,  very  short.  When  a  new  style  appears,  there  is 
another  sudden  batch  of  rush  orders  to  be  pushed  out  under  high 
pressure — and  then,  stagnation.  Two  long  seasons  have  been 
chopped  up  into  a  number  of  short  seasons.  It  is  now  impossible 
for  the  wage-earner  to  know  what  pay  he  will  receive,  or  for  the 
employer  to  know  what  business  is  in  sight  for  him.     Neither  can 

^  It  is  asserted  by  those  studying  the  unemployment  situation  in  New  York 
that  it  is  impossible  for  the  average  employe  in  the  women's  clothing  industry  to 
work  over  50  per  cent  of  the  time,  because  of  the  excessive  irregularity. 


S      3 


Steadying  Employment  25 

plan  ahead.  To  attempt  this  and  trust  to  hitting  the  next  fashion 
is  so  unsafe  as  to  be  a  gambling  proposition.  The  statement  of  a 
ladies'  dress  goods  manufacturer  (in  which  business  the  situation 
is  analogous)  will  describe  the  situation.  "One  year  I  took  a 
chance  and  made  up  goods  ahead  of  the  style.  I  happened  to  hit 
it  right  and  made  $85,000.  I  would  hate  to  say  what  happens 
other  times  when  I  miss  it."  It  is  claimed  by  the  secretary  of  the 
Women's  Garment  Manufacturers'  Association  that  the  introduction 
of  idle  periods  into  what  was  formerly  a  steady  working  period 
has  added  three  or  four  weeks  a  year  to  the  period  of  unemployment. 

Both  the  union  and  the  manufacturers'  association  report 
that  an  attempt  was  made  during  the  last  year  to  bring  about 
an  agreement  among  the  manufacturers  in  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  Chicago  and  Cleveland,  that  they  should  decide  on  one 
style  for  a  season  and  stand  by  it.  This  attempt  to  bring  about 
stability  in  the  business  and  to  make  employment  more  regular 
failed  because  of  mutual  suspicion  among  employers.  Most  em- 
ployers claim  that  frequency  of  style  changes  is  due  to  the  two 
or  three  large  manufacturers  in  New  York,  who  set  the  style  and 
change  it  often  so  as  to  increase  sales  of  their  own  goods.  Others 
assert  that  it  can  be  charged  to  the  large  department  stores  who 
knock  down  a  style  shortly  after  it  has  been  created,  and  set  up 
another  so  that  buyers  will  be  stimulated  to  purchase  over  again, 
in  order  to  "keep  up  with  the  style."  The  answer  of  each  de- 
partment store,  of  course,  is  that  it  is  forced  to  follow  the  example 
of  its  competitors. 

While  the  seasons  in  different  branches  of  the  women's  gar- 
ment industries  do  not  coincide,  all  concerns  lose  a  proportion- 
ately large  percentage  of  the  annual  time.  A  manufacturer  of 
ladies'  shirt  waists  employing  several  hundred  hands  has  the  fol- 
lowing to  say  regarding  the  irregularity  of  employment  in  that 
industry  and  the  influence  that  extreme  styles  have  on  regularity 
of  employment : 

We  run  almost  to  capacity  from  January  to  June.  From  June  to  January 
we  run  at  practically  50  per  cent  capacity.  We  are  especially  slack  from  June  to 
October.  Conditions  used  to  be  such  that  the  irregularity  always  characteristic 
of  our  business  was  a  constant  thing  which  we  could  predict  in  advance.  Ivnow- 
ing  when  it  occurred,  we  could  sit  up  nights  and  plan  against  it,  and  figure  out 
some  way  to  reduce  irregularity  in  production  and  employment.  We  could 
furnish  employment  during  our  dull  seasons  bj^  manufacturing  to  stock.     Shirt- 


Steadying  Emptoyment  27 

waists  were  fairly  well  standardized  and  there  were  no  extreme  styles.  Orders 
would  come  in  ten  months  before  delivery  was  required,  and  the  plant  could 
manufacture  fairly  regularly  since  it  could  make  up  these  orders  whenever 
convenience  demanded.  Frequently  we  could  make  up  stock  in  the  off  season 
till  we  would  have  100,000  shirtwaists  piled  up  which  we  would  work  off  in  the 
buying  season.  Frequently  we  would  make  from  ten  to  twelve  thousand  waists 
without  an  order.  We  knew  that  the  worst  we  would  have  to  do  would  be  to 
simply  swap  dollars.  Nowadays,  we  rarely  make  over  twenty-five  garments 
without  orders. 

Although  it  is  widely  considered  that  men's  clothing  is  so 
standardized  that  there  can  be  little  irregularity  of  production 
due  to  the  variety  of  cloth  and  style,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that 
the  style-irregularity  is  only  somewhat  less  than  in  women's  clothing. 
The  off  seasons  are  less  than  half  as  long  as  the  off  seasons  in  the 
women's  clothing  business.  How  irregular  the  men's  clothing  busi- 
ness is,  may  be  seen  from  fig.  14,  which  shows  the  weekly  variation 
in  the  amount  paid  out  by  one  large  and  representative  men's 
clothing  concern  to  tailors  both  within  and  without  the  factory. 
This  represents  the  approximate  variation  in  employment  furnished. 

One  large  manufacturer  who  makes  a  very  high  grade  of 
clothing,  a  business  which  is  subject  to  style  changes,  writes  as 
follows: 

Women's  fashions  play  a  more  important  part  in  dictating  men's  styles  than 
ever  before  and,  as  a  consequence,  we  have  had  more  rapid  changes  in  style  than 
the  average  manufacturer  does  keep  up  with.  These  changes  are  not  confined 
to  the  design  of  the  garment  alone,  but  the  fabrics  also,  so  that  what  appUes  to 
the  clothing  manufacturer  might  be  said  just  as  strongly  of  the  fabric  maker. 

C.     Industries  Manufacturing  Electric  and  Steam  Railway  Equip- 
ment and  Ships 

The  third  great  industry  that,  in  the  long  run,  adds  most  to 
unemployment  in  the  Philadelphia  district  is  that  group  of  in- 
dustries which  supply  equipment  to  railroads  and  steamboat  com- 
panies. The  railroads  and  steamboat  companies  are  notorious^ 
irregular  buyers.  They  buy  in  a  lump.  When  conditions  are 
favorable  to  them,  they  buy  vigorously.  When  the  reverse  holds, 
these  companies,  especially  the  railroads,  buy  scarcely  anything. 
Since  there  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  40,000  persons  in  these 
industries  in  and  around  Philadelphia,  a  severe  curtailment  of 
such  purchases  is  suflficient  to  affect  seriously,  if  not  altogether 


TTTi rrTTT r T" X- ------' ' 

,  , 

'  X"  "     ±                ::::;:;: 

.     -.:.:_. ±::  :;:-3:        -     - 

:  _:::::;;£--  ".  x 

lO 

1           -^  n,                                       !     '  1  I"    d 

I    J 

j<"SJs:S«          ::::::::::::::*;:;;::::: 

_ 

- 

d  5  &  a  §  •-  o-.S        """                —    ^-'     : 

o  f.  °  «;  3  j=  s                    l-UJ 

sjS"^     togiu                       S::. ::::._ 

_.  ^ 

■"  j3  g  „;  <t>  §  >.                      3-,     :::::::: 

H  ij  a  .a  «  ^  ^  o                     IJJ  JJ-* 

"Sia-S^Sa                   '-  =  "             ": 

•E_«33s-^<"                     ",        "_:: :_ 

-- 

(^ad^.«             1 s^  — 

""* 

^       O.B         S'O^        ^               ■"                                              --..,;-_ - 

-  Ci 

—  J       .L-_^___±J44- 

:: 

+  t                _  C^^      -  .  -                    -   -     

-- 

—  '  -               ~- — 1 

'      \      ■ , ,  1 1 1 1 

-- 

.t—^  .     |- 

-"       yf 

I'-^g^  ^Wm 

:: 

--  1— ( 

--  OS 

<f-rr--±±"±::::::::: 

--     T— i 

"*■--■     -      -           

_„ 

iJJs-i-- 

__ 

1N30  y3d 


Steadying  Errvployment  29 

withdraw,  the  usual  means  of  livelihood  from  a  number  of  per- 
sons probably  considerably  in  excess  of  100,000.  Cutting  off 
the  buying  power  of  so  many  people  is  alone  sufficient  to  create 
"hard  times"  in  Philadelphia.  This  situation  partly  explains 
the  statement  of  a  prominent  local  manufacturer  that  Philadel- 
phia is  always  either  on  the  "top  crest  of  prosperity  or  far  down 
in  the  dumps."  How  irregular  these  industries  are  may  be  seen 
from  a  glance  at  fig.  15,  which  shows  the  variation  in  the  number 
employed  from  month  to  month  through  a  period  of  years  in  a 
large  railway  equipment  plant  and  in  a  large  shipbuilding  concern. 

D.     The  Building  Trades 

One  of  the  few  industries  that  is  becoming  less  irregular  than 
it  used  to  be  is  the  building  industry.  Formerly  little  was  done 
from  Thanksgiving  until  late  in  March.  However,  the  use  of  ce- 
ment is  lengthening  the  open  season  for  certain  lines  of  building 
work.  Cement,  when  heated,  mixed  with  gypsum  and  protected 
by  salt  hay,  is  fairly  safe  from  injury  by  freezing,  even  in  the 
coldest  weather.  If  general  business  conditions  are  good,  the 
builders  of  factories  and  office  buildings  are  coming  more  and 
more  to  show  little  regard  for  the  weather  by  running  straight 
through  the  winter  (except  for  an  occasional  severe  day) — witness 
the  Ford  Motor  Company  building  at  Broad  Street  and  Lehigh 
Avenue.  Cold  weather  is  more  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  con- 
struction of  houses  and  in  street  paving  and  sewer  work.  Not 
much  work  of  this  type  is  done  from  the  middle  of  December  to 
the  last  of  February.  The  unemployment  that  results  from  this 
cause  is  less  serious  because  the  period  is  not  long,  is  well  known 
in  advance,  and  can  therefore  be  provided  against.  It  is  claimed 
that  the  influence  of  irregularity  in  work  is  offset,  for  the  skilled 
mechanics,  by  a  higher  rate  of  wage.  This,  however,  does  not 
apply  to  the  unskilled  men,  who  are  the  hardest  hit  here  as  else- 
where. Some  idea  of  the  irregularity  in  the  building  trades  may 
be  secured  by  a  reference  to  the  fluctuations  in  employment  of  a 
representative  construction  company  doing  a  general  construction 
business,  as  shown  in  fig.  16. 

E.     The  Longshoremen 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  chronic  unemployment  exists 
among  the  longshoremen  and  dock  workers  in  any  large  port; 


j;    :3    c:    o- 


5   £J?-H 


c    t 


^     Q. 


"^  "^  0:  in  i>   (t!  +. 


3^  j:    "^  ~- 
O  T3 


e  £ 


O    u 


1^ 


^  ft) 

. —    <i> 


5   ~   ^ 

"^     Cat     iD 
rO    i_     ^ 


ci)    C^     ttl 


rfl   c:  —    n  c 


_   rt)  £ 


ro  t:  i:  T3        -o    rtl. 


.^^t — ' — 


a39U3AON 

Ji3aoi)o 

5l38U31dK 


-     -iw^^ 


W)8VW 


\avnNvr 


Steadying  Employment  31 

and  these  conditions  hold  among  the  negroes  and  Poles  and  south- 
east-European dock  workers  of  Philadelphia.  In  the  absence  of 
exact  statistics,  the  statements  of  superintendents  of  labor  of 
steamship  companies  and  the  heads  of  docking  concerns  throw  the 
best  light  on  unemployment  among  the  dockmen.  The  head  of  one 
stevedore  firm  says, — "If  every  steamship  company  were  emploj-ing 
today  as  many  dock-hands  and  longshoremen  as  it  employed  on 
its  busiest  day  last  year,  one-half  of  the  dock  labor  would  still  be 
idle."  Another  says, — "I  do  not  believe  that  the  dock-hands 
average  over  two  days  a  week."  Although  the  wages  per  hour 
are  relatively  high,^  the  time  lost  is  so  great  that  the  average  weekly 
wage  is  low.  In  view  of  this  lack  of  statistics  for  Philadelphia 
dockmen,  the  statement  of  the  situation  in  New  York  may  be 
taken  as  probably  fairly  typical  of  Philadelphia.  Both  employers 
and  employes  in  New  York  testified  before  the  Federal  Industrial 
Relations  Commission  that  the  men  earn  on  an  average  of  from  ten 
to  twelve  dollars  per  week.  This  irregularity  tends  to  produce 
shiftlessness  and  dissipation  in  the  workers. 

F.     Agricultural  Labor 

Agriculture  is  one  of  the  most  notoriously  irregular  indus- 
tries in  its  demand  for  labor.  This  is  particularly  true  on  the 
farms  that  lie  to  the  east  and  south  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  sandy 
coastal  plain  portions  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Maryland. 
In  these  sections,  the  chief  products  raised  are  truck  and  vege- 
tables. The  cultivation  and  harvesting  is  done  by  hand  to  a 
much  larger  extent  than  is  the  cultivation  and  harvesting  of  most 
farm  crops.  As  a  result.  South  Jersey  and  Delaware  have  a  very 
high  demand  for  labor  during  the  summer  and  fall.  The  extra  de- 
mand Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  are  called  on  to  supply.  Every 
summer,  whole  families  (chiefly  Italians)  migrate  to  the  fields 
of  South  Jersey  and  Delaware  in  late  May  or  early  June,  as  soon 
as,  or  even  before  strawberries  are  ripe.  Many  of  these  families 
migrate  from  one  section  to  another  as  the  different  crops  in  dif- 
ferent sections  ripen.  Some  remain  till  the  end  of  the  cranberry 
season  late  in  October.  These  families  then  return  to  Philadel- 
phia.    After  a  bad  winter,  this  exodus  to  the  truck  and  berry  field 

^  Thirty  cents  per  hour,  forty-five  cents  per  hour  for  overtime  up  to  mid- 
night, and  sixty  cents  for  overtime  after  midnight  and  Sunday. 


32  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

helps  to  relieve  Philadelphia's  unemployment  problem.  _  Stated  the 
other  way,  however,  although  many  of  those  returning  in  the  fall 
to  Philadelphia  find  employment  in  clothing  factories,  construc- 
tion gangs,  etc.,  it  is  apparent  that  these  returning  thousands  are 
dumped  on  to  the  city's  labor  market  "just  when  winter  is  ap- 
proaching and  when  the  industries  are  least  able  to  absorb  them. 

The  extent  of  the  irregularity  of  employment  on  the  truck 
farms  may  be  seen  from  a  curve  showing  the  variation  in  employ- 
ment on  truck  farms  in  South  Jersey  during  the  year  1914.  Letters 
of  inquiry  were  sent  to  a  large  number  of  farmers  selected  at  random 
in  South  Jersey.  The  curve  in  fig.  17,  showing  the  monthly  varia- 
tion in  employment  on  a  number  of  truck  farms  in  South  Jersey 
during  1914,  was  constructed  from  the  answers  received  from  these 
inquiries. 

Closely  akin  to  the  irregularity  in  the  demand  from  South 
Jersey  and  Delaware  for  agricultural  labor  is  the  demand  of  the 
■fruit  and  vegetable  canneries  for  practically  the  identical  kind 
of  labor.  The  South  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Maryland  section  is 
one  of  the  biggest  centers  in  eastern  United  States  for  the  can- 
ning of  fruit  and  vegetables.  The  majority  of  these  canneries, 
which  employ  thousands  of  hands  at  the  height  of  the  season,  run 
from  two  to  five  months  every  year.  A  large  part  of  their  help 
is  drawn  from  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  in  the  spring  and  return 
there  in  the  fall. 

G.     Department  Stores 

Employment  in  department  stores  is  characterized  by  a 
considerable  amount  of  seasonal  irregularity.  The  high  season 
occurs  from  Thanksgiving  till  Christmas.  After  the  Christmas 
rush  the  number  of  employes  usually  declines  until  the  last  of 
February  or  March.  During  April  and  May  the  number  is  slightly 
increased  in  order  to  handle  the  sales  of  goods  for  the  summer 
season.  Employment  during  the  summer  season  falls  off,  the  low 
points  being  reached  during  July  and  August.  The  situation  in 
the  department  stores  is  very  well  summarized  in  a  study  made 
by  the  Philadelphia  Consumers'  League,  and  published  as  a  bulletin 
of  the  State  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry : 


Steadying  Employment 


33 


Regularity  of  Employment 

The  following  chart,  showing  the  variation  from  the  normal  in  the  number 
of  employes  in  one  large  department  store,  at  different  seasons,  shows  a  condition 
which  is  probably  true  of  the  four  other  large  stores.  The  month  of  May,  when 
this  store  considered  its  force  about  normal,  has  been  taken  as  100  per  cent. 

Percentage  Fluctuation  by  Months  in  the  Working  Force  of  One  Store 

Percentage 

145 

140 

135 

130 

125 

120 

115 

110 

105 

Normal  100 

Force     95 

90 

85 

80 

75 

70  I 

Jan.  Feb.  Mar.  Apr.  May  Jvme  July  Aug.  Sept.  Oct.  Nov.  Dec. 


The  month  of  December  shows  a  42  per  cent  increase  in  the  normal  force 
and  August  a  27  per  cent  decrease.  This  indicates  plainly  the  number  of  tem- 
porary and  intermittent  department  store  workers  at  the  command  of  any  large 
store  for  busy  seasons.  Many  girls  work  in  the  stores  from  September  imtil 
Christmas  eve  or  imtil  January  first,  when  a  falUng  off  of  trade  demands  a  cutting 
down  of  forces.  Hundreds  of  employes  are  dismissed  Christmas  eve  in  every 
large  store.  A  few  of  these  workers  will  be  reengaged  December  27  or  28  and 
kept  through  the  January  sales.  A  toy  department  that  has  normally  12  women, 
had  350  just  before  Christmas.  About  three  hundred  are  dismissed  December 
24  and  the  others  are  gradually  dropped  during  the  next  month  imtil  reduction 
sales  and  stock  inventory  are  over.  In  March  or  April  again  extra  workers  will 
be  taken  on  for  two  or  three  months. 

Upon  the  examination  of  the  records  of  456  saleswomen  in  one  store,  for  a 
period  of  16  weeks  from  June  to  September,  it  was  found  that  many  saleswomen 
take  some  voluntary  vacation  beyond  the  paid  w'eek.  The  better  paid  women 
are  out  from  one  to  nine  weeks.  The  group  considered  had  all  been  in  the  employ 
of  the  house  at  least  one  year  and  they  averaged  7^  days'  absence  beyond  their 
paid  vacations  in  this  summer  season  alone.  Of  those  who  were  earning  $8  and 
above,  the  largest  proportion,  or  55  per  cent,  were  out  one  week  and  more  beyond 


34  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

the  paid  week,  as  against  only  40  per  cent  of  those  earning  under  $8.  In  one 
department  store  regular  saleswomen  and  six-day  contingent  sellers  are  given 
only  three  days'  work  a  week  in  slack  seasons. 

Despite  this  great  irregularity  of  employment  that  appears  on  the  surface, 
department  store  unemployment  is  made  less  serious  in  that  a  number  of  those  laid 
off  at  the  Christmas  season  regularly  return  to  other  work,  which  they  have 
temporarily  left  in  a  slack  season.  For  example,  many  of  the  stores  keep  a  list 
of  addresses  of  people  whom  it  regularly  calls  on  during  the  rush  seasons.  The 
help  needed  in  certain  departments  is  drawn  from  the  wholesale  departments 
of  the  store  to  the  toy,  book,  jewelry,  etc.,  departments  who  need  extra  help. 
The  second  large  source  of  help  is  by  securing  traveling  men  who  usually  are  not 
very  busy  during  December.  The  busy  season  of  these  persons  comes  while  the 
stores  are  stocking  up  before  the  Christmas  rush.  A  man  who,  for  example, 
has  been  a  traveling  jeweh-y  salesman,  then  becomes  a  jewelry  salesman  in  the 
department  store,  etc.  In  the  third  place,  department  stores  secure  help  at 
Christmas  from  the  small  tailoring  shops,  whose  busy  season  just  precedes  that 
of  the  department  stores.  Moreover,  many  of  those  laid  off  at  the  end  of  a 
busy  season  are  persons  such  as  married  women,  school  students,  etc.,  who  utihze 
this  opportunity  to  earn  some  "pin"  money.  Although  a  considerable  amoxmt 
of  time  may  be  lost  by  those  laid  off  by  the  stores  before  they  are  needed  at  their 
old  positions,  department  store  unemployment  is  made  less  serious  by  this  dove- 
tailing of  trades  which  assures  steadier  employment. 

H.     Labor  Union  Statements 

In  order  to  throw  as  much  light  as  possible  on  the  amount  of 
unemployment  in  Philadelphia  industries,  letters  were  sent  by 
the  Director  of  Public  Works  to  each  union  affiliated  with  the 
Central  Labor  Union.  One  of  the  questions  in  the  letter  asked 
the  amount  of  time  lost  by  the  average  member.  This  query  was 
designed  to  indicate  the  amount  of  normal  unemployment  there 
was  in  different  trades.  Unions  were  asked  to  answer  this  question 
only  if  they  had  records.  The  tabulated  results  of  the  limited 
number  of  answers  received  are  as  follows: 

Union  No.  Time  annually  lost  by  average  number 

1  About  8  months   (only  those  tempo- 

rarily employed  considered) 

2  4  months 

3  10-12  days 

4  2  months 

5  3  days  a  week 

6  half  time 

7  7  months 

8  3  months 

9  none 

10  2  months 

11  about  2  months 


Steadying  Employment  35 

These  answers  represent  but  a  small  percentage  of  the  labor 
unions  in  Philadelphia.  As  a  rule,  we  may  assume  that  those 
with  the  largest  amount  of  unemployment  were  most  ready  to 
answer.  Even  allowing  for  this  and  for  any  mistakes  in  the 
estimates,  the  abundance  of  unemployment  is  apparent. 

/.     Miscellaneous  Industries 

The  preceding  is  not  intended  as  a  complete  statement  of 
unemployment  and  irregularity  of  employment  in  Philadelphia 
industries.  Only  the  largest  of  those  in  which  unsteadiness  of 
employment  exists  were  selected.  A  long  list  of  industries  might 
be  named,  in  which,  for  one  reason  or  another,  conditions  are 
much  the  same.  Surely  enough  has  been  said  to  prove  the  exist- 
ence in  Philadelphia  (and  probably  any  other  industrial  center)  of 
a  serious  unemployment  situation — firmly  rooted,  growing,  det- 
rimental to  employer,  worker  and  community,  even  in  the  best  of 
industrial  years. 


r  "fj  w  ^  ^i;  ^ 


2^ 


13 
ftl   c 


w  >       £  3  c  c9 

Z   C   c   u  -c  i 
t)        w  D   fn  ^ 

^-t-r  rO-*-   n  ^   w 

^  ^  ^^"^  -^ 

^  «--  5  3  ^^ 

"^   u   lO   -^  ?  >  ■" 

Z    0    ^.t?\i__^_^ 

0  M-    O         ft)  i: 


-   U^ 
+-    3/^ 


3 

m  t)  t9 


0 


(b)    U    t) 

>  r^  c: 

0)    W    D 


s 


Jl 


cr> 


n] 


gss£ 

—1        c 


in 


m 


to 


n 

0^ 

^_ 

cvj 

rt=# 

o 

z 

"r^ 

^ 

" 

oC) 

\UJ 

•r 

vO 

z 

< 

01=^ 

PART  II 

THE   COST   OF   UNEMPLOYMENT 

To  THE  Employe 

Little  though  we  know  of  the  facts  of  unemployment,  we 
know  even  less  of  its  social  cost.  We  do  not  realize  how  deeply 
unemployment  penetrates,  and  how  seriously  it  threatens,  our 
community  welfare.  Although  unemployment  affects  every  in- 
terest in  the  community,  the  burden  falls  most  heavily  on  the 
working  classes.  When  out  of  work  the  average  member  of  the 
working  class  loses  his  chief  means  of  support.  It  is,  therefore, 
a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  him. 

The  most  immediate  and  vital  effect  of  unemployment  on  the 
worker  is  a  very  serious  reduction  of  the  wage  scale.  Enough 
has  been  said  to  show  how  greatly  unemployment  reduces  the  pay 
received.  In  the  absence  of  any  general  information  for  Phila- 
delphia industries,  an  investigation  made  in  New  Jersey  will  best 
serve  to  indicate,  in  a  general  way,  the  extent  to  which  the  wage 
scale  is  depressed  by  unemployment.  Figures  collected  by  the 
New  Jersey  State  Department  of  Labor  from  firms  employing  over 
21,000  workers  in  the  machine  industry  and  from  firms  employing 
nearly  16,000  persons  in  the  silk  industry  show  that  each  of  these 
industries  worked  during  the  normal  industrial  year  of  1912  at 
approximately  70  per  cent  of  total  capacity.  The  actual  average 
wage  received  during  the  year  for  the  machine  industry  was  $684; 
for  the  silk  industry,  $509.  If  full  time  had  been  made,  it  follows 
that  an  increase  of  over  40  per  cent  would  have  resulted.  This 
would  have  meant  an  average  annual  wage  for  the  machine  in- 
dustry of  $977;  for  the  silk  industry  of  $726.  This  result  is  shown 
graphically  in  fig.  18. 

It  has  been  shown  that  in  Axminster  Carpet  Mill  "A",  in 
the  last  four  years,  employes  lost  at  least  27  per  cent  of  the  normal 
working  time  since  that  much  of  the  time  was  spent  outside  of  the 
mill.  The  actual  average  annual  wage  received  by  piece  workers 
in  this  mill  was  $413  (based  on  statistics  compiled  for  the  entire 
force  from  April,  1911,  to  April,  1912,  and  from  July,  1914,  to 

[37] 


>  "  i 
-  I*  ■ 


iQ       J    JO 


>        111 


«)     (u    J! 


0      -; 

a   "c 
■°  I 


3    +5 


=  ?  "  ^ 


-     t    :£    _- 


a  _o 


.0,  .n 


5i4- 


t     III 


II)  -" 
:5  4- 


^;     E 


"     8 


u   c    o    m 


?    X    i 


j^^S" 


o5 


.?<^< 
r^' 
■5^^ 


1  >  ^ 


!5^ 


5!  li  e 
5  "»»  o 


P 


5  -^ 


^^!9 


4& 


i^ 


j3#i  ^-s^ 


lu  e  o 
52 


j^^ 


<  <      * 


52 


Steadying  Employment  39 

April,  1915).  If  this  27  per  cent  of  time  had  not  been  lost,  the 
average  annual  wage  would  have  been  $566.  The  average  annual 
loss  of  wage  per  employe  through  unemployment  was  at  least 
$153,  and  was  probably  much  more,  if  time  lost  waiting  in  the  mill, 
and  time  lost  by  those  laid  off,  were  included.  Stated  for  individual 
departments,  the  actual  average  annual  wage  and  the  lost  wage  per 
employe  would  be  as  follows : 

Average  annual  wage  lost 
Actual  average  through  lost  time 

annual  wage  spent  outside 

of  mill 

Winders $334  $124 

Threaders 237  88 

Setters 468  173 

Weavers 452  168 

Pickers 444  164 

These  results  are  shown  graphically  in  fig.  19. 

In  short,  the  worker  loses  the  opportunity  of  earning  100  per 
cent  of  what  his  energies  and  abilities  warrant.  Permanent  or 
chronic  unemployment  means  a  permanent  loss  of  wage.  In 
essence  it  means  that  the  family  of  a  man  with  a  $1,000  or  $1,200 
earning  ability  cannot  profit  by  or  live  according  to  the  standard 
of  such  means,  because  the  man  is  actually  earning  only  from  $500 
to  $1,000  a  year.  Not  merely  does  unemployment  seriously  re- 
duce the  income  of  the  worker;  it  makes  his  income  decidedly  ir- 
regular. Regular  income  is  interrupted  by  periods  of  total  or 
partial  stoppage  of  income.  In  times  characterized  by  such  unusual 
industrial  depression  as  of  the  past  winter,  the  loss  of  income  is 
complete  on  the  part  of  thousands.  To  a  large  degree,  the  worker 
is  entirely  ignorant  when  such  misfortune  will  befall  him.  Such 
a  situation  almost  forces  the  worker  to  lead  a  hand-to-mouth 
existence.  He  hesitates  to  plan  ahead,  because  he  never  knows 
whether  he  will  be  able  to  carry  through  his  plans  or  not,  for  fear 
of  an  interruption  of  income.  A  premium  is,  therefore,  placed  on 
the  lack  of  thrift.  When  the  normal  income  returns  after  a  famine 
period,  it  not  unnaturally  leads  a  family  to  spend  extravagantly 
after  the  strain  of  pinching  through  a  hard  time,  just  as  human 
nature  always  has,  from  the  days  we  were  savages,  led  us  to  indulge 
in  an  orgy  of  feasting  after  a  long  fasting.  Unemployment  and 
irregular  employment  are  the  arch  enemies  of  thrift. 


40  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Perhaps  the  most  serious  industrial  result  of  unemployment 
is  its  effect  on  the  quality  of  the  working  people.  It  makes  good 
workers  bad.  It  turns  workers  who  were  capable  and  willing  into 
men  who  are  neither  capable  nor  willing  to  hold  a  steady  job  if 
they  could  get  one.  As  one  man  with  whom  I  talked  when  he  was 
out  in  front  of  a  hosiery  mill  at  the  noon  hour,  said,  "  For  six  months 
before  this  month,  we  have  been  working  from  8  to  3.  When  we 
came  to  go  back  to  the  old  hours  (7  to  5.30)  it  seemed  at  first  as  if 
we  just  couldn't  make  ourselves  get  up  an  hour  earlier  and  work  two 
hours  later." 

The  utter  inability  of  the  workers  to  understand  or  to  change 
the  situation  breeds  a  fatalistic  lack  of  hope  that  soon  manifests 
itself  in  a  lack  of  ambition  and  effort.  The  secretary  of  the  National 
Lace  Weavers'  Union  says,  "The  lace  industry  has  made  more 
bums  than  any  industry  I  know  of.  I  have  seen  men  go  into  the 
mills  only  to  work  an  hour  this  morning  or  an  hour  this  afternoon, 
so  long,  that  they  are  incapable  of  sustained  effort.  They  lose  their 
personal  'punch'  and  often  eventually  lose  their  ability  to  discuss 
anything  except  how  things  are  this  week  in  this  or  that  plant." 

One  of  the  usual  ways  by  which  such  a  depression  leads  to  a 
debasing  of  the  worker  is  by  causing  the  skilled  man  to  drift  into 
an  unskilled  trade.  When  a  man  is  out  of  work,  he  is  very  apt  to 
"take  anything"  that  offers,  whether  it  is  a  job  in  which  he  can 
utilize  his  skill  or  not.  The  very  common  result  is  that  he  is  never 
able  to  "come  back"  to  his  own  trade.  His  ability  in  his  partic- 
ular trade  is  sacrificed  and  he  drifts  into  the  already  tremendously 
overcrowded  class  of  unskilled  men.  Not  only  the  worker  but 
the  entire  Philadelphia  community  as  well,  is  the  loser  by  this  lower- 
ing of  the  skill  of  labor. 

The  injury  to  the  worker  by  unemployment  extends  beyond 
his  mere  industrial  efficiency,  and  dangerously  affects  the  social 
standing,  the  family  relations,  the  health,  the  intelligence  and  the 
public  orderliness  of  the  working  classes  of  the  community.  A  series 
of  interviews  with  Kensington  textile  workers  (chiefly  Anglo- 
Saxons)  is  one  steady  story  of  used  up  savings,  of  increased  debts, 
and  of  "half  time"  for  four,  six  or  nine  months  during  the  past 
winter.  Even  the  few  whose  greater  savings  or  "steadier  time" 
would  normally  have  led  them  to  avoid  the  "pinch"  of  the  past 
winter,  have  felt  obliged  to  lend  to  the  less  fortunate  to  an  extent 


Steadying  Employment 


41 


which,  in  many  cases,  has  meant  a  severe  drain  on  their  own  re- 
sources. 

The  lowered  income  during  such  a  winter  as  the  past  (1914-15) 
very  frequently  means  the  curtailment  of  the  necessities  of  food, 
fuel  and  clothing,  to  the  point  where  the  health  is  seriously  im- 
paired. It  is  almost  impossible  to  measure  this  injury.  Mr.  R. 
R.  P.  Bradford,  who  is  in  charge  of  the  "Lighthouse"  and  was 
quoted  previously  (page  6),  said  during  the  spring  of  1915,  "I 
should  not  be  at  all  surprised  if,  as  a  result  of  the  lowering  of  physi- 
cal vitality  among  the  Kensington  workers,  because  of  insufficient 
nourishment  and  protection,  there  should  come  about  an  epidemic 
of  disease  that  will  cost  us  dear.  Whether  it  does  or  does  not 
happen,  we  have  a  permanent  injury  as  a  result  of  this  year's  un- 
employment in  the  lessened  vitality  of  the  people." 

Every  severe  depression  is  a  great  destroyer  of  family  life. 
Almost  every  family  with  whom  I  conversed  knew  of  two  or  three 
families  that  were  forced  to  "break  up"  because  of  the  unemploy- 
ment during  the  past  winter.  One  of  the  usual  results  of  unem- 
ployment is  a  considerable  increase  in  the  number  of  thefts,  bur- 
glaries and  suicides.  The  figures  of  Table  I  show  how  these  crimes 
have  increased  in  Philadelphia  during  the  winter  of  1914-15, 
when  unemployment  was  serious.  Note  also  the  increase  of  sui- 
cides during  the  winter  of  1907-08 — the  year  of  the  last  severe 
depression. 

Table  I — Effect  of  Unemployment  on  Suicides  and  Chime 
Number  of  crimes  committed  during  three  winter  months  of 


1906-7 

1907-8 

1908-9 

1909-10 

1910-11  1911-12 

1912-13 

1913-14 

1914-15 

Suicides 

Larcenies  .... 
Burglaries .... 

43 

60 

50 

61 

61 

48 

62 

65 

1,068 

32 

74 

1,227 

44 

While  other  causes  may  have  contributed  to  this  result,  it 
seems  obvious  that  severe  unemployment  must  have  been  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  large  increase  for  the  present  winter  and  for 
the  winter  of  1907-08. 

The  superintendent  of  truancy  reports  a  much  larger  number 


42  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  students  remaining  away  from  school  on  account  of  the  lack  of 
fit  clothes  than  in  any  recent  winter.  Only  a  teacher  can  appre- 
ciate the  effect  of  irregular  attendance  on  the  progress  of  students 
in  a  class  room. 

Typical  individual  cases  convey  more  clearly  the  situation  in 
Kensington  during  the  past  winter  than  statistics.  A  few  of 
these  are,  therefore,  given. 

Two  English  brothers,  who  have  been  in  this  country  three 
and  seven  years  respectively,  are  married  and  live  in  the  same 
house.  Both  are  cloth  weavers  and  have  worked  at  the  same 
mill  since  their  coming  to  America.  The  story  of  Kensington  is 
summed  up  in  the  statement  of  the  elder : 

During  the  last  five  years  I  have  not  worked  full  time  more  than  half  the 
time.  At  our  mill  we  usually  work  five  or  six  months  steady,  and  then  part  time 
the  rest  of  the  year.  In  the  entire  seven  years  I  have  been  here,  eighteen  months 
was  the  longest  steady  run  we  ever  had.  This  winter  business  has  been  unusually 
bad.  We  have  worked  half  time  ever  since  Christmas  (the  date  of  the  interview 
was  in  July). 

If  we  had  had  any  children  Hke  the  rest,  we'd  be  up  against  it  like  the  rest  of 
them.  Anybody  with  children  is  certainly  poor.  It  isn't  because  we  don't  want 
children,  but  things  are  so  that  if  you  have  two  or  three  children,  it  takes  all  you 
are  able  to  make  in  good  times  to  supply  the  necessaries;  then  when  bad  times 
come,  you  are  up  against  it.  If  next  winter  is  like  the  last,  a  lot  of  the  people  we 
know  will  have  to  live  on  borrowed  money,  or  go  under.  I  have  loaned  $25  in 
the  last  nine  months.  My  brother  loaned  $33  of  which  he  has  had  $16  returned. 
You  can't  get  credit  here  in  a  bad  time  like  you  can  at  home.  Things  are  more 
irregular  than  they  are  at  home.  If  we  had  any  children  to  support,  we  would  go 
back  at  once. 

The  native  intelligence  and  honesty  of  this  family  were  evi- 
dently of  high  calibre.  The  fact  that  they  have  worked  three  and 
seven  years  respectively  at  one  mill  is  evidence  of  their  industry. 

Frank  Ball,  a  day  hand  in  the  Axminster  Carpet  Mill  "A",  is 
described  by  his  foreman  as  being  steady  and  capable  and  indus- 
trious.    Ball  says: 

I  have  a  wife  and  three  children — 12,  9  and  6  years  old.  Prior  to  last  fall, 
I  had  $300  saved  up.  I  get  $2  a  day,  but  since  June,  1914  (this  interview  was  in 
June,  1915),  I  have  averaged  less  than  $8  per  week.  My  rent  costs  me  $13.  My 
father,  who  lives  with  me,  has  been  sick,  and  this,  combined  with  bad  times,  has 
used  up  our  savings  till  we  are  now  $65  in  debt.  I  owe  a  bill  at  the  clothing  store, 
and  I  still  owe  for  one  of  the  five  tons  of  coal  I  bought  last  year  at  this  time. 
Now  it's  time  to  buy  some  more. 


Steadying  Employment  43 

I  don't  know  what.  I'd  done  if  I  hadn't  had  a  more  economical  wife  than  most 
men.  She  makes  over  her  old  clothes  so  that  they  look  like  new,  and  when  she 
can  no  longer  fix  them  for  herself,  she  makes  them  into  clothes  for  the  children. 
They  look  neat,  too.     My  wife  hasn't  had  a  new  dress  since  1912. 

During  this  winter,  I  tried  not  to  let  a  dollar  get  away  from  me  if  I  could 
help  it,  and  took  odd  jobs  here  and  there  whenever  I  could  get  it  on  the  days  there 
was  no  work  at  the  mill.  Once  we  were  shut  down  for  five  days  on  account  of  the 
death  of  a  member  of  the  firm.  I  heard  of  a  job  at  King  of  Prussia  (a  village  17 
miles  out  in  Chester  County)  and  went  out  and  got  a  job  there  on  a  farm.  I 
painted  some  steps,  and  did  other  odd  jobs  about  the  place.  Even  at  that  we 
could  hardly  get  along. 

A  lot  of  families  I  know  of  broke  up;  one  right  across  the  street  sold  their 
furniture  and  separated  to  live  with  each  other's  folks.  It  will  take  a  lot  of 
people  two  or  three  years  to  get  over  this  winter  because  a  good  many  of  them  had 
to  borrow  money  on  their  furniture.  When  the  bills  came  due  they  were  unable 
to  make  payments,  and  they  lost  their  furniture. 

What  famine  and  black  plague  were  to  the  middle  ag6s,  so 
is  unemployment  to  the  modern  industrial  world. 

Cost  of  Unemployment  to  the  Employer 

Unemployment  involves  a  far-reaching  economic  loss  to  em- 
ployers, even  though  it  does  not  so  immediately  affect  their  wel- 
fare as  it  does  that  of  workers.  However,  it  gravely  endangers 
the  welfare  of  any  industrial  community.  It  is  a  constant  menace 
to  an  industrial  center  in  its  competition  for  trade  with  other 
centers. 

Corresponding  to  the  reduced  wages  of  the  employe  is  the 
reduced  output  of  employers.  In  the  absence  of  any  comprehen- 
sive statistics  bearing  on  our  loss  of  output  through  unemployment, 
the  statistics  gathered  by  the  New  Jersey  State  Department  of 
Labor  and  Statistics  show  a  situation  which  may  be  taken  as  fairly 
typical  of  Philadelphia.  Figures  collected  by  the  State  Depart- 
ment from  2,556  firms  show  the  actual  output  for  the  year  1912. 
They  also  show  the  output  for  those  plants  if  "all  the  existing 
facilities  were  brought  into  use."  These  latter  figures  are  es- 
timated by  the  firms  themselves.  They  show  that  for  the  normal 
industrial  year  of  1912,  these  plants  were  running  only  to  74  per 
cent  of  their  capacity.  Stated  in  terms  of  lost  output  it  meant  a 
loss  of  $363,000,000.  Shown  graphically  the  situation  may  be 
stated  as  in  fig.  20. 

The  complete  loss  to  employers  is  not  to  be  stated  solely  in 


c;   =n 


,.t5) 

.■—  , 

fc 

.£ 

1-  .=^ 

<n 

+— 

_C 

w 

<^  -h 

.<■ 

Z  '[1 

" 

r    -^ 

0 

.  -5 

0    0 

o 

, 

^'  ,.> 

0     , 

J 

^   r 

~o  0 

u- 

^■^ 

£0 

o 

J::   rr^ 

'.  0 

^ 

^ 

\~ 

^   vD 

^ 

^      -r, 

V    lO 

-c 

'O  ;:i 

-~ 

lO    ^ 

mc\J  :h 

f- 

1 * 

<^  -^ 

-ft)    if) 

4-  §: 

f  0 

jr 

0 

J) 

c:    rn 

o 

M 


H-. 

3-1 

C) 

-  — 

0 

1^ 

^D 

C^ 

^-1 

r^ 

W 

=5 
O 


m 

v^-. 

0 

u 

-^ 

(tj 

r-\ 

-^ 

rci 

r- 

t_J 

o 

< 


Steadying  Employment  45 

terms  so  simple  and  obvious  as  in  lost  output.  Perhaps  deserving 
of  higher  rank  than  the  loss  of  output  is  the  loss  experienced  by 
employers  in  demoralization  of  organization.  In  answer  to  a 
question  sent  by  letter  to  the  managers  of  six  representative  mills 
in  Kensington,  five  answered  that  they  regarded  unemployment 
or  slack  time  as  the  chief  causes  of  the  rapid  shift  of  employes 
from  shop  to  shop.  As  one  employer  puts  it,  "We  found  that, 
while  our  men  could  make  $3  or  S4  a  day  when  they  worked,  they 
rarely  did  because  of  the  time  that  was  lost  through  slack  orders, 
waiting  for  changes  in  the  dyes,  etc.  As  a  result,  they  were  dis- 
satisfied and  we  couldn't  hold  our  best  men."  Another  firm  states 
the  proposition  conversely  by  saying,  "We  can  keep  our  help  and, 
incidentally,  get  the  best  help  of  our  class,  not  because  we  pay  a 
higher  rate  of  wages — for  as  a  matter  of  fact  our  rate  is  somewhat 
lower, — but  because  we  guarantee  our  help  steady  employment 
and  our  twenty-five  years'  reputation  bears  out  our  claim." 

An  electric  company  (outside  of  Philadelphia)  has  the  fol- 
lowing to  say  regarding  the  demoralization  of  the  working  force 
through  unemployment: 

It  is  realized  by  most  manufacturers  that  not  only  is  unrest  and  dissatis- 
faction produced  among  the  working  force  by  irregularities  in  production,  but 
that  there  is  a  direct  monetary  loss  of  a  considerable  amount.  This  is  especially 
true  in  industries  which  are  conducted  very  largely  by  so-called  unskilled  labor 
which  have  to  be  taught  how  to  perform  the  work  on  which  they  are  employed 
as  distinguished  from  work  which  is  done  by  recognized  trades.  To  illustrate,  in 
a  locomotive  or  general  machine  shop  when  work  increases,  more  machinists  are 
employed.  These  men,  being  trained  artisans,  are  familiar  with  the  work  which 
they  are  employed  to  do  and  are  immediately  productive.  In  work  similar  to 
our  own,  vmless  we  are  fortunate  enough  to  recover  all  of  oiu:  old  employes,  which 
is  never  the  case,  a  bulge  in  production  requires  the  hiring  of  large  numbers  of 
unskilled  men  and  women  who  have  to  be  taught  the  various  classes  of  work  which 
are  peculiar  to  our  business.  This  training  and  development  in  the  different 
departments  requires  all  the  way  from  a  couple  of  weeks  to  six  months. 

Where  industries  operate  under  this  latter  condition,  the  cost  of  securing 
new  and  untrained  employes  after  a  depression  may  amount  to  as  much  as  from 
$25  to  S40  per  employe,  this  cost  covering  the  cost  of  hiring,  the  cost  of  training, 
the  work  spoiled  and  the  tools  damaged  during  the  process.  It  is  aggravated  by 
the  fact  that  all  the  newcomers  do  not  stick,  so  that  to  get  one  proficient  employe 
in  the  end  you  have  perhaps  started  with  three,  four  or  five  and  taken  them  part 
way  through  the  training  process. 

Further  reference  will  be  made  later  to  this  flow  of  labor 
through  shops.     It  is  sufficient  to  say  here  that  this  rapid  shifting 


46  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  labor  means  a  generally  lower  development  of  skill  on  the  part 
of  workers  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  almost  constant  presence 
in  the  shop  of  an  unusually  large  number  of  greenhorns. 

The  loss  of  efficiency  does  not  stop  simply  with  the  lost  skill 
of  those  who  leave.  The  manager  of  one  of  the  largest  toolmaking 
concerns  around  Philadelphia,  says,  "After  a  period  of  unemploy- 
ment, it  takes  the  employer  three  weeks  to  get  his  force  and  plant 
up  to  the  point  where  it  can  turn  out  orders  with  normal  efficiency. 
During  the  slack  times  it  has  run  down  at  the  heels."  The  fore- 
man of  Axminster  Mill  "A"  says,  "Even  if  the  same  weaver  comes 
back  to  the  same  loom,  after  a  long  period  of  lost  time,  it  takes 
three  weeks  before  the  loom  will  run  again  as  well  as  it  did  before 
we  shut  down." 

More  insidious  than  these  losses  to  the  employer  is  the  loss 
during  periods  of  unemployment  through  the  degeneration  of  the 
workers  in  spirit,  energy  and  ambition.  As  one  employer  writes: 
"Working  men  or  working  women  who,  through  no  fault  of  their 
own,  are  deprived  successively  time  on  time  of  the  opportunities 
to  realize  their  earning  capacities,  inevitably  suffer  impairment  of 
courage,  self-respect  and  even  moral  fibre,  the  loss  of  which  falls 
first  upon  the  community,  but  eventually  upon  industry,  in  the  de- 
preciation in  quality  and  spirit  of  the  labor  supply."  Philadelphia 
has  been  known  as  the  best  labor  market  in  the  world.  Unemploy- 
ment does  not  tend  to  keep  her  so. 

Finally,  unemployment,  if  widespread,  knocks  the  props  out 
from  under  a  market  that  may  already  be  sagging,  because  it 
tends  to  diminish  the  buying  power  of  the  community,  so  that  in- 
dustries which  might  normally  be  ready  to  start  again,  are  dis- 
couraged from  beginning. 

One  progressive  Philadelphia  employer  sums  up  the  injury 
by  unemployment  in  their  forging  and  finishing  shop  as  follows: 

When  our  factory  begins  to  lose  time  and  works  on  reduced  hours,  the  first 
thing  we  notice  is  breaking  up  the  personnel  of  our  working  force.  Our  best 
mechanics,  who  are  capable  men,  begin  looking  around  for  other  positions.  As 
these  men  are  in  the  minority,  their  loss  is  keenly  felt,  as  quite  often  one  man  will 
be  the  backbone  of  a  gang  of  three  or  four,  and  his  loss  is  very  severe  both  in 
eflficiency  of  production  and  in  quality  of  work.  High  grade  men  have  less  trouble 
in  obtaining  other  positions  under  normal  conditions  than  the  inferior  grade  of 
workmen,  and  unless  a  great  deal  of  care  is  exercised  during  times  of  depression, 
a  factory  is  liable  to  be  left  with  their  less  efficient  men  on  hand. 


Steadying  Employment  47 

With  the  loss  of  any  of  our  men  it  seems  that  we  must  break  in  new  men  for 
the  work.  If  we  are  running  our  regular  output  on  a  piece  work  system,  as  we  do 
here,  it  simply  means  that  the  new  men,  not  having  the  knowledge  sufficient  for 
efficiency,  cannot  he  put  on  a  piece  work  basis  and  it  is  necessary  to  start  him  on 
time  work,  raising  the  cost  per  unit  from  5  to  10  per  cent. 

New  men,  likewise,  turn  out  more  bad  work  than  is  usual,  and  this  work  is 
either  an  absolute  loss  or  must  be  worked  over  again  at  an  additional  expense. 
This  item,  while  not  large,  is  simply  an  added  burden  to  our  cost. 

In  our  plant  where  material  cuts  such  a  figure  we  likewise  find  that  replacing 
regular  men  with  new  men  means  that  they  waste  material.  The  diflference 
between  the  waste  of  a  bar  used  for  a  given  product  and  the  actual  finished  product 
is  termed  scrap  in  our  cost  keeping,  and  we  have  figures  showing  that  these  men 
produce  10  per  cent  more  scrap  than  the  average  workmen  should  do.  In  other 
words,  they  use  10  per  cent  more  material  to  produce  a  given  piece  of  product 
than  is  necessary. 

More  supplies  are  used  up  with  new  men  than  with  old,  first,  because  they 
do  not  know  how  to  handle  them,  and  waste  them,  and  secondly,  they  produce 
more  bad  work  which  has  to  be  refinished.  The  first  lot  of  supplies  used  by  new 
men  in  making  the  finished  product  is  lost  entirely. 

Regarding  the  last  paragraph  of  your  letter  which  asks  for  definite  figures 
showing  the  difference  in  cost  per  unit  when  our  factory  is  running  at  100  per  cent 
capacity  and  when  it  is  running  at  75  per  cent  capacity;  on  the  latter  figure  our 
factory  cost  per  unit  is  20  to  22|  per  cent  higher  than  at  full  capacity. 

The  reason  for  this,  of  course,  is  that  when  you  are  cutting  down  the  productive 
capacity  it  is  very  hard  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  your  force  of  engineers,  foremen, 
inspectors,  firemen,  truckers,  and  such  incidental  labor,  and  your  general  over- 
head expenses  are  to  a  great  extent  stationary. 


PART  III 

THE  INCREASE  OF'  KNOWLEDGE  ABOUT  UNEMPLOY- 
MENT 

What  should  we  do  about  unemployment?  It  is  obvious  that 
we  will  not  comprehend  and  cannot  intelligently  attack  a  problem 
that  goes  as  deep  into  the  industrial  organization  of  society  as  does 
unemployment,  so  long  as  we  know  so  little  about  it  as  we  do  now. 
The  scantiness  of  our  present  knowledge  of  unemployment  has 
already  been  pointed  out.  It  does  not  enable  us  to  attack  unem- 
ployment much  more  successfully  than  did  the  ancient  physicians 
attack  physical  illness  in  the  days  when  medical  science  consisted 
only  of  a  series  of  magical  spells  and  potions.  Our  most  funda- 
mental need  at  the  present  time  in  attacking  unemployment  is  to 
know  something  about  it — its  facts,  its  causes — and  its  significance. 

It  was  with  the  object  of  contributing  more  definite  infor- 
mation to  our  knowledge  of  Philadelphia's  unemployment  that 
the  City  of  Philadelphia  invited  the  Metropohtan  Life  Insurance 
Company  to  conduct  an  unemployment  canvass  among  its  policy- 
holders during  the  past  winter. 

Unfortunately  this  information,  while  of  invaluable  aid  in 
throwing  light  on  the  amount  of  unemployment  in  the  past  win- 
ter, is  of  little  help  in  throwing  light  on  the  actual  amount  of  un- 
employment that  may  exist  at  any  time  in  the  future. 

As  a  means  of  supplementing  the  Metropolitan  canvass, 
arrangements  have  been  made  with  the  State  Department  of 
Labor  and  Industry  that  it  should  collect  at  regular  quarterly  in- 
tervals, statistics  of  unemployment  and  employment  in  Philadel- 
phia which  will  give  a  usable,  even  if  inadequate,  basis  for  esti- 
mating the  amount  of  unemployment  there  is  at  any  particular 
time  in  the  future.  The  names  of  250  manufacturing  concerns, 
chosen  so  as  to  be  as  nearly  typical  of  all  sizes  and  kinds  of  manu- 
facturing industries  as  possible,  were  submitted  by  the  Department 
of  Public  Works.  The  plan  provides  that  the  Department  of  Labor 
and  Industry  will  collect  monthly  statements  from  these  firms  and 
compile  the  figures,  showing  for  one  particular  week: 

148] 


Steadying  Employment  49 

1.  The  number  employed, 

Full  time 
Part  time 
At  normal  operating  capacity 

2.  The  number  of  hours  worked  per  week 

3.  The  total  payroll  (excluding  salaries), 

Actual  for  week  of 
When  running  to  capacity 

These  statistics  should  furnish  a  fair  basis  for  estimating  the 
variation  in  and  amount  of  unemployment  in  the  important  manu- 
facturing industries  of  Philadelphia  at  the  canvass  periods.  By 
properly  "weighting"  the  statistics  for  each  different  industrj^ 
according  to  the  importance  of  that  industry  in  the  city  as  indicated 
by  census  figures,  it  will  be  possible  to  form  some  idea  of  the  extent 
of  unemployment  in  Philadelphia  manufactories,  as  a  whole,  at 
these  canvass  periods.  In  order  not  to  disclose  the  business  con- 
ditions of  individual  firms,  the  names  of  the  firms  from  whom  figures 
are  collected  are  not  given.  Since  Philadelphia  is  basicly  and  pre- 
eminently a  manufacturing  city,  these  figures  will  be  sufficiently 
representative  of  the  city  as  a  whole  to  furnish  a  usable,  though 
inadequate,  clue  to  future  conditions.  As  a  result,  we  should  not 
be  in  the  future  in  such  a  quandary — whether  unemploj'ment  is 
serious  enough  to  justify  ultra-heroic  measures — as  we  were  in  the 
past  winter. 

These  two  sets  of  statistics  will  furnish  but  the  barest  out- 
Hne  of  the  knowledge  we  need.  Over  and  above  general  data, 
we  need  the  closest  and  most  detailed  analysis  of  the  causes,  ex- 
tent and  effects  of  unemployment  in  each  important  industry. 
It  is  only  by  such  studies  that  we  will  be  enabled  to  discuss  un- 
employment   intelHgently. 

Every  organization  interested  in  making  Philadelphia  a  bet- 
ter city,  industrially  and  socially,  has  an  opportunity  and  a  duty 
to  forward  the  collection  and  discussion  of  the  facts  of  unemploy- 
ment in  this  city.  The  causes  and  facts  of  unemployment  differ 
so  widely  in  different  industries,  and  even  in  different  phases  of  the 
same  industry,  that  any  investigations  taken  up  should  be  con- 
centrated upon  a  study  of  a  single  industry.  The  Consumers' 
League  has  perhaps  the  best  opportunity  to  throw  light  on  condi- 
tions in  certain  Philadelphia  industries  by  including  a  study  of  the 
amount,  cause  and  results  of  unemployment  in  the  industries  which 


50  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

it  investigates.  The  Wharton  School  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania should  take  the  lead,  in  the  community's  efforts  to  study 
the  problem.  A  course  in  unemployment  should  be  offered.  Even- 
tually a  department  of  unemployment  would  be  established  which 
shall  give  graduate  and  undergraduate  courses  in  the  subject;  whose 
graduate  students  shall  be  assigned  to  investigate  facts  and  results; 
and  which  shall  assist  in  forwarding  and  coordinating  the  efforts  of 
the  various  agencies  that  are  studying  the  situation  in  Philadel- 
phia. The  Pennsylvania  Training  School  for  Social  Workers  is 
another  agency  that  we  naturally  expect  to  forward  such  discus- 
sion. Yet  its  roster  of  courses  for  the  year  1914-15  contains  no 
course  on  unemployment.  Every  school,  every  church,  every  club 
that  is  interested  in  social  and  industrial  questions  has  a  chance 
to  encourage  and  push  the  discussion  of  a  question  so  vital  to  the 
industrial  and  social  well-being  of  the  community. 


PART  IV 

THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  EMPLOYING  CONCERNS  IN  ITS 
RELATION   TO    UNEMPLOYMENT 

Philadelphia  emploj^ers  cannot  afford  to  disregard  the  in- 
jury received  from  unemployment.  No  community  can,  without 
grave  concern,  witness  the  degeneration  of  its  working  classes 
through  unemployment,  nor  can  it  be  oblivious  to  the  terrific  in- 
jury to  its  industrial  interests  through  unemployment.  The  ob- 
ligation, therefore,  rests  upon  the  entire  employing  community 
to  do  everything  that  is  humanly  and  financially  possible  to  re- 
duce this  evil. 

Philadelphia's  methods  of  meeting  her  unemployment  during 
the  winter  of  1914-15  cannot  be  regarded  for  a  minute  either  as 
permanent  or  ideal.  At  best,  charity  is  not  a  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  unemployment.  Our  charitable  methods  during  the  past 
winter  were  particularly  unfortunate.  In  this  connection,  we 
should  freely  recognize  the  very  remarkable  administrative  effi- 
ciency and  the  spirit  of  public  service  and  actual  accomplishment 
which  characterized  the  Emergency  Aid  Committee.  It  may 
even  be  granted  that,  in  lieu  of  better  measures,  such  steps  may 
possibly  be  necessary,  in  unusually  severe  times,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent suffering.  At  such  times  we  "face  a  fact,  not  a  theory." 
But  we  must  not  consider  charity  as  a  satisfactory  way  to  meet 
unemployment.  Such  a  program  tends  to  pauperize  a  community, 
invite  shiftlessness  and  discourage  self-reliance.  As  Jeff  Davis, 
king  of  the  hoboes  and  ma,nager  of  the  Hotel  De  Gink  in  New  York, 
puts  it,  "If  you  pay  people  to  beg  they  will  beg;  if  you  pay  'em  to 
work,  they'll  work."  It  furthermore  tends  to  disgrace  self-respect- 
ing workers  and  to  injure  their  pride  permanently.  Emergency 
committees  and  public  aid  can  be  justified  only  in  cases  of  severe 
extremity,  under  conditions  analogous  to  those  in  a  hospital,  where 
a  very  dangerous  and  unusual  operation  is  sometimes  resorted  to  in 
order  to  save  a  dying  patient's  life.  The  necessity  of  resorting  to 
charity  to  handle  unemployment,  instead  of  being  a  solution  of  the 
problem,  is  an  admission  that  we  have  not  solved  it.     It  is  a  mortify- 

[51] 


I  1  II  III  11  1  1  1  1  1  ll  1  |M  1  I  I  1  I  1 

^::::::j::::::::::::::::" 

,_Tf? 

a) 

^:::::::::::i::::::::::::: 

g:^::: 

-     (i>     fe                            P 



privat 
es  sho 
by  the 
niber 

24  to 
previo 
was 

the 

H'^^'SglSa-r,  - 

.      _  .; 

1  1  1  1  1  iT 
fpublic 
id.    Cu 
receive 
tes  the 
from  0 
od  of  tl 
alio  reli 
nscrted 

J     ^ 

...!_       1 - 

«'    _       3 

""  —  "     :  ..  :"":.  ^'^ 

-     °    Z     a     5     V     Z     P    'a 

-■So     oS'Se.^'- 

-aiJ.-'Sa—    ;.c3 

"'      _;'           : 

:    g  S   1   -S   •£    g    o 

-     S     a    ■-     a>    4J     5    1^     S 

•si-favHi-  NOixv  ado/ddv-Ai  0-ae 

>.            - 

-■3C3       S     =     *^2'"0 

-C3«;       COMCOS 

:|.§    Silly's 

:   sg    S   -2    ■--   _    o    61    « 

a  --   -   ■ 

^     "     i                   '"           ---, 

-  ^  t  i  a  E  >  -^  ^ 

:  -5  1   i   1    S    g  M 

o  "     y -^- 

^     '^  ^             '     z.~.-"L' --'. 

T'l  1 
rtsh 
Qcre 
atio 

Org 
icat 
otte 
tes  0 

the 

MM 

Clia 
ini 
van 
for 
app 

.  Da 
dby 

:        5  ±?  5    ^   «=•    ■-    g 

■■i    M   S    o   z:   B    p 

S      a     o    =_!     ft    -K     S 

-j--_-          -,     

J.        i-.:^,    - 

::::::^?:::::::::e;  :::::: 

xj  = ■"=" 

N -         

—      "":  :",=''  --'-'-         --' 

^  ^J.^^-.p'j^ ;^-- 

J  ■._^_^ -+^_^^^-     -     -     --  .      -    . 

:::x:;::::::::::::::::::':  : 

J                         J               [\[ 

T\                             i 

V                 =  iiiiiix:  ::^i 

__^ __- 

::::::::::::::::::?::::::::::: 

5 ±- 

^...q: 

-i::::::::::"-,  .::'     

7.           .    - 

.5,-           

L, It 

:::J-:::::::::: 

:::::::::x:::::::::::::j 

Si 

IT  MdV 
OT  -kJV 
£jdv 

02  •JBW 
£T  ■J'!W 

g-JBM 
12  -qaj 
02  qa.! 
£T  'qa.! 

9'qaj 
OS  DBp 

r.2  ni^f 
9T  DBf 
6-nBf 
2-nEf 
92  -oaa 
61  -saa 

21  -osa 

g-oaa 

82  "AON 
12  '^OK 

\\  "AOK 

2,'AOK 
T£  iSQ 


OS         TO 


S  S 


Steadying  Employment  53 

ing  evidence  that  we  have  not  been  sufficiently  "on  the  job"  to 
create  an  industrial  society  in  which  such  catastrophes  cannot 
occur.  Unemployment  catastrophes  are  the  punishment  for  our 
neglect. 

The  effect  that  highly  advertised  charity  has  in  destroying 
self-reliance  and  in  teaching  people  to  become  voluntary  paupers 
is  abundantly  found  in  the  city's  experience  during  the  winter  of 
1914-15.  Shortly  after  the  first  appropriation  of  $50,000  by  Coun- 
cils, large  numbers  of  foreigners  appeared  before  the  branch  of- 
fices of  the  Society  for  Organizing  Charity  in  South  Philadelphia 
and  demanded  "some  of  the  city  money"  as  their  inalienable 
right.  Of  94  new  applications  that  came  in  to  the  southeast 
district  immediately  after  the  donation  of  public  aid  was  fea- 
tured in  the  newspapers,  one  of  the  heads  of  the  Society  for  Or- 
ganizing Charity  selected  at  random  nine  cases  that  would  be 
roughly  typical.  Investigation  showed  that  all  but  one  of  these 
cases  were  not  only  undeserving,  but  not  even  seriously  needy. 
This  clogging  of  the  machinery  of  organized  charity  with  un- 
deserving cases  makes  it  difficult  to  reach  and  handle  the  really 
needy  case  at  a  time  when  help  is  most  needed.  Better  evidence 
of  the  effect  of  the  wide  advertising  is  found  in  the  sudden  and 
large  increase  in  the  number  of  new  applications  received  by  the 
charitable  societies  immediately  after  the  appropriation  of  city 
money,  the  formation  of  the  Emergency  Aid,  Self-Sacrifice  Week, 
etc.,  became  public  through  the  newspapers.  The  connection 
between  the  number  applying  for  charitable  aid  and  the  exces- 
sive advertisement  that  is  connected  with  the  granting  of  pub- 
lic relief  is  seen  in  fig.  21,  which  shows  the  number  of  new  appli- 
cations received  each  week  during  this  winter,  in  connection  with 
the  dates  on  which  the  granting  of  relief  was  featured  in  the  news- 
papers. Meeting  unemployment  with  charity  tends  to  produce 
the  type  of  individual  similar  to  a  Philadelphian  whom  we  may 
call  "Jack."  Jack  had  been  out  of  work  four  months.  A  friend 
expressed  his  sympathy  and  received  the  reply,  "Oh,  it's  not  bad, 
it's  like  any  other  trade  after  you  learn  it." 

To  what  extent  Philadelphia's  advertised  philanthropy  dur- 
ing the  past  winter  tended  to  bring  into  this  city  the  floating  va- 
grants of  other  cities,  it  is  impossible  to  say.     It  is  reasonable  to 


54  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

suppose  that  that  result  was  brought  about  in  Philadelphia  during 
the  winter  of  1914-15. 

Unemployment  is  primarily  a  question  of  industry  and  in- 
dustrial organization.  The  manager  of  a  shoe  manufacturing 
company  in  Philadelphia  asserts  that  unemployment  cannot  be 
reduced  to  any  great  extent  under  the  present  individualistic, 
competitive  system  of  doing  business.  Waiving  the  question  as  to 
whether  this  fatalism  is  justified  or  not,  it  is  obvious  that  the  in- 
troduction of  a  new  industrial  system  is  a  proposition  so  doctri- 
naire that  it  can  scarcely  be  counted  as  offering  any  immediate 
practicable  hope.  It  behooves  us,  therefore,  to  see  what  can  be 
done  under  the  present  system.  Since  unemployment  is  an  in- 
dustrial question,  the  responsibihty  for  ameliorating  the  evil  must 
rest  primarily  upon  the  shoulders  of  those  in  control  of  modern 
industry,  regardless  of  whether  the  unemployment  be  due  to 
individual  management  of  a  business  or  to  broader  economic 
considerations.  It  is  distinctly  up  to  employers  to  attack  the 
problem  more  seriously  than  they,  as  a  whole,  have  hereto- 
fore; whether  they  do  it  from  altruistic  motives  or  because  of 
the  fact  that,  in  the  long  run,  it  is  the  wisest  business  policy.  It 
is  up  to  them,  even  if  it  involves  as  fundamental  changes  as  a 
certain  large  manufacturer  implies  when  he  says,  "To  secure 
uniform  daily  production,  and  to  partially  eliminate  the  evils  of 
seasonal  production,  require  practically  an  entire  reorganization 
of  the  business  with  this  as  one  of  the  primary  objects.  It  is  not 
a  part  of  the  organizing  methods;  it  is  a  primary  objective  and 
must  permeate  every  fibre  of  the  whole  institution." 

Philadelphia  boasts  that  she  is  the  "World's  greatest  Work- 
shop." In  few  ways  can  her  employers  more  certainly  insure 
that  this  phrase  shall  remain  true  than  by  eliminating  unem- 
ployment. Philadelphia,  free  from  unemployment,  would  attain 
a  degree  of  prosperity  at  present  undreamed  of.  If  injury  to  our 
community,  through  unemployment,  continues  to  be  disregarded 
we  may  endanger  our  crown. 

What  steps  in  dealing  with  unemployment  are  the  more 
advanced,  progressive  and  thoughtful  employers  taking  which 
point  the  way  for  the  majority  to  follow? 

Before  answering  this  question  it  must  be  recognized  that 
the  widespread  unemployment  that  results  from  such  unusually 


Steadying  Employment  55 

severe  industrial  depressions  as  we  experienced  during  the  past 
winter  and  as  are  more  or  less  frequently  caused  by  money  panics, 
or  "psychological"  panics,  or  European  War,  or  fluctuations  in  the 
tariff,  is  a  thing  which  can  seldom  be  offset  by  the  efforts  of  the 
employer,  without  the  risk  of  endangering  his  industrial  existence. 
Although  he  has  an  obligation,  so  far  as  it  is  industrially  safe  for 
him,  to  furnish  employment  at  such  times,  the  causes  of  such  con- 
ditions are  not  of  his  making;  and  such  depressions  are  frequently 
so  severe  that  he  has  all  he  can  do  to  keep  his  industrial  ship  afloat. 
In  other  words,  unemployment  is,  in  some  respects,  a  thing  so  broad 
in  its  origin  that  effective  action  to  prevent  its  causes  must  be  nation 
or  world-wide. 

To  go  back  to  the  original  question,  "What  can  employers 
do?"  Special  study  has  been  made  of  the  textile  industries;  but 
many  of  the  illustrations  used  are  from  other  industries  and  the 
points  mentioned  are,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  applicable  to  all 
industries. 

At  the  outset  it  must  be  accepted  as  a  fundamental  principle 
that  each  employing  concern  should  regard  itself  as  one  industrial 
family  for  the  welfare  of  whose  members  the  concern  is  re- 
sponsible in  the  way  in  which  the  head  of  a  private  family  is  re- 
sponsible for  its  members.  This  fundamental  principle  must  under- 
lie an  employer's  entire  attitude  towards  his  working  force  and  guide 
all  his  efforts  against  unemployment.  In  the  long  run  this  will 
prove  the  only  sound  business  policy. 

With  this  family  relationship,  the  100  per  cent  ideal,  rarely 
possible  of  complete  attainment,  but  toward  which  we  should  strive, 
is  for  each  employer  and  each  firm  to  accept  responsibility  for  keep- 
ing a  certain  definite  number  of  employes  steadily  employed — 
without  overtime  and  with  the  minimum  possible  changes  in  per- 
sonnel. This  number  should  be  the  "rating"  which  each  firm  gives 
itself  as  the  number  it  can  keep  steadily  employed.  As  one  very 
progressive  and  successful  employer  writes: 

Many  employers  do  not  realize  their  duty  to  keep  their  working  force  intact 
under  all  conditions,  with  the  exception  of  the  very  most  unusual  and  aggravated 
cases  of  industrial  depression.  The  keeping  of  the  working  force  intact  is  not 
only  a  duty  of  the  employer  toward  the  employe  and  to  the  community,  but  it  is 
on  the  face  of  it  the  only  sound  business  policy.  I  believe  not  only  that  all  public 
agencies  should  educate  the  employer  toward  the  importance  of  this  policy,  but 


56  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

that  they  should  also  educate  the  employer  to  the  fact  that  vocational  and  periodi- 
cal depression  must  be  looked  for  and  should  be  provided  against  in  prosperous 
times,  at  least  to  such  an  extent  that  a  definite,  sound  and  just  policy  is  assured 
to  the  employe  and  to  the  community,  if  not  more  material  help  in  some  instances. 

1.     Obtaining  and  Analyzing  the  Facts  in  Each  Individual 

Plant 

The  first  need  of  each  individual  employer,  just  as  with  the 
community  as  a  whole,  is  the  need  for  more  information.  Enough 
has  been  said  to  show  that  a  large  percentage  possesses  nothing 
but  vague  information  about  their  own  conditions.  In  order  to 
know  just  what  the  amount  of  unemployment  is  in  his  firm  and  just 
what  are  the  various  causes,  each  employer  should  collect  daily 
records  which  would  show,  by  departments  and  tasks,  for  each  day, 
week,  quarter  or  year,  the  following : 

1.  Total  number  of  employes  in  mill 

2.  Total  number  of  absences 

3.  Causes  of  each  absence 

4.  Actual  payroll 

5.  Total  payroll  if  all  nominally  on  the  payroll  had  been  working  full  tune 

6.  Actual  number  of  hours  made  in  plant 

7.  Total  number  of  hoiu-s  made,  if  all  on  payroll  had  been  working  full  time 

(deduct  national  holidays) 

8.  Number  of  new  employes 

9.  Employes  laid  off: — 

a— Total  number 

b — Good  reasons  (marriage,  death,  promotion,  etc.) 

c — Where  individual  was  responsible 

d — Where  firm  was  responsible 

e — Where  responsibility  was  uncertain 

This  information  would  enable  a  firm  to  compile  for  any  given 
period  information  to  show: 

1.  The  modulus  of  employment  {i.e.,  the  percentage  of  full 
time  worked  by  employes).  This  would  be  ascertained  by  de- 
termining the  rates  between  the  actual  total  number  of  hours  worked 
in  the  plant  during  the  year  and  the  number  which  would  have 
been  worked  if  all  on  the  payroll  had  made  full  time  (barring  na- 
tional holidays), — as  follows: 


Steadying  Employment  57 

actual    total    hours    worked    per    day, 
week,  month,  etc. 
Modulus  of  employment  =  


total   hours   worked  if   on   continuous, 
full  time  operation  during  same  period. 

2.  The  causes  of  unemployment  and  the  importance  of  each, 
thus  indicating  definite  points  for  the  firm  to  attack  its  own  un- 
employment problem. 

3.  The  labor  turnover  (i.e.,  the  relation  between  the  number 
of  unnecessary  hirings  and  the  average  number  employed) . 

On  a  basis  of  information  collected  by  these  records,  a  firm 
may  determine  just  what  its  own  labor  turnover  is  for  any  given 
period.  Labor  turnover  in  its  relation  to  unemployment  is  dis- 
cussed on  page  63. 

The  daily  report  used  by  one  firm  to  collect  information  of  this 
character  is  shown  below: 

Absentee,  Tahdy  and  New  Employe  Report  fok  Thursday,  May  20,  1915 

Absentees  Returned  (7) 
Number  Name  Operation  Reason  Time 

148  Barbara  Zajicek  .  .  Flps.  and  wits,  stchd Sore  throafand  backache  . .  x  1  da. 

300  Maud  Cashin Foreman Father  was  sick x  1  da. 

937  Helen  Augustine  . .  Sle.  swd.  in Per.  funeral x  1  da. 

938  Mary  HoefBer  ....  Sle.  swd.  in Per.  funeral x  I  da. 

969  Steve  Dianiska  .  .  .  Shou.  and  slve.  fin Per.  naturalization  papers .  .  x  1  da. 

1163       Mike  Jost Elevator  man Sick x  2  da. 

One  Day  Absentees  (5> 

S.  M.  R.  Joe.  Cavath Mach.  inspector Per.  went  to  court 1  da. 

737       Theresa  Gedeon  .  .   Cts.  tmd.  bott.  tckd 

748       Julia  Broch Col.  cor.  tckd.  and  feld Sick  yesterday. 

751       Agnes  Anek M.  H.  col.  tckd.  and  feld.  . . .   Tel.  sick. 

1382       Irene  Steenstra  .  . .   Lpl.  and  fronts  exmd Sick  yesterday. 

More  Than  One  Day  Absentees  (2) 
41       Charlotte 

Marquardt Route  clerk Tel.  sick x  2  da. 

164       Adelia  Fleger Top.  pkts.  made 2  da. 

New  Hands  (5) 
843       Minnie  Matuska 
769       Alma  Diffenback 

1050        Mary  Bugar Former 

2375        Mary  Tarnovsky .  .    Former 

2385       Stella  Beth 

Quitter  (1) 

1261        Mary  Haluska.  .  .  .   Butt.  swd.  on Married. 

Tardy  (0) 


58  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

By  means  of  this  record  this  firm  was  able  to  say  at  the  end  of 
the  year : 

Actual  full  time  working  year 48      weeks 

Actual  amount  of  time  employes  could  have  worked  in  year 45.2      " 

Actual  amount  of  time  employes  actually  did  work  in  year 42         " 

2.     Incomplete  Methods  of  Determining  Costs 

It  is  not  surprising  that  with  such  vague  knowledge  of  un- 
employment as  generally  prevails,  mistakes  should  be  made  as 
to  whether  it  is  better  business  to  run  or  stand  idle  in  certain  bad 
times.  As  a  matter  of  fact  employers  very  generally  underesti- 
mate the  loss  of  an  idle  plant  and  over-estimate  the  loss  incurred 
by  running  during  slack  times.  An  expensive  haste  in  shutting 
down  plants  in  bad  times  results.  The  theory  held  by  cost  ac- 
countants that  all  the  expenses  of  operating  and  maintaining 
a  factory  must  be  included  in  the  cost  of  the  output  produced  serves 
to  increase  unemployment  by  inducing  firms  to  shut  clown  when 
good  business  policy  demands  that  they  should  run  at  what  is  ap- 
parently a  loss.  In  slack  times,  when  demand  has  fallen  off,  the 
entire  expense  of  maintenance  and  operation  is  saddled  on  to  the 
small  output,  an  apparent  high  cost  of  production  per  unit  results. 
Accordingly  the  firm  hastens  to  shut  down  to  avoid  "running  at  a 
loss" — and  frequently  does  not  even  consider  reducing  prices — as 
its  selling  department  may  wish — in  order  to  stimulate  demand. 

Newer  cost  accounting  methods  are  pointing  out  the  fallacy 
of  this  system,  insisting  that  the  expense  of  supporting  a  part  of 
the  plant  in  idleness  is  a  business  expense  and  should  be  charged 
to  the  business  and  not  into  cost  of  the  product.  Under  this  plan, 
while  the  plant  as  a  whole  might  be  losing  money,  a  particular 
department  might  be  making  a  good  profit  over  its  own  cost  of 
production.  By  thus  separating  the  cost  of  idleness  and  the  actual 
cost  of  production,  it  appears  that  it  will  frequently  be  better  busi- 
ness to  run  when  the  plant  as  a  whole  is  seemingly  running  at  a  loss 
rather  than  to  shut  down  and  carry  those  as  well  as  greater  losses 
in  idleness.  One  authority  on  this  subject  asserts  he  will  shortly 
be  able  to  prove  that  it  will  pay  an  employer  to  run  a  department  at 
what  prevailing  cost  accounting  systems  would  conclude  to  be  a 
25  per  cent  loss. 


Steadying  Employment  59 

3.     Maintaining  an  Excessive  Labor  Reserve 

Many  firms  retain  more  people  on  their  payroll  than  they 
can  keep  busy.  The  inevitable  result  is  that  some  of  the  em- 
ployes spend  a  good  deal  of  their  time  on  the  streets  or  else,  as 
is  more  often  the  case,  the  unemployment  that  results  from  this 
situation  is  "passed  around"  among  the  entire  force  and  a  great 
majority  of  the  working  force  spend  a  very  large  percentage  of 
their  working  time  on  "part-time."  Taking  this  year  in  and  year 
out,  the  accumulated  amount  of  lost  time  or  unemployment  is 
tremendous. 

This  situation  is  illustrated  in  the  lace  industry.  The  prev- 
alence of  unemployment  among  the  lace  operators  through  good 
years  and  bad  (see  page  7)  shows  that  there  are  more  workers 
in  the  five  lace  firms  in  Philadelphia  than  the  business  can  make 
use  of.  Fig.  22  shows  the  actual  output  in  one  firm  for  the  lace 
department  for  each  month  of  the  last  three  years,  as  compared 
with  the  approximate  output  possible  if  the  lace  weavers  had 
been  running  full  time. 

Firms  follow  this  practice  of  keeping  an  excessive  number 
on  their  payrolls  for  a  variety  of  reasons.  The  employer  wishes 
to  hold  as  large  a  labor  reserve  as  he  can  so  that,  if  a  sudden  order 
for  rush  delivery  should  come,  he  is  in  a  position  to  put  all  hands 
on  full  time  and  turn  the  goods  out  in  a  hurry.  Or  there  may  be, 
for  a  short  period  of  each  year,  a  tendency  to  fall  behind  in  deliveries; 
some  employers  keep  enough  help  on  part  time,  nearly  all  the  year, 
just  to  supply  their  customers  promptly  at  the  period  of  maximum 
pressure. 

A  second  reason  for  holding  an  excessive  force  is  in  order  to 
discourage  efforts  on  the  part  of  employes  to  secure  higher  wages 
or  other  favors  which  the  firm  may  not  desire  to  grant.  When 
there  is  a  lot  of  slack  time  in  a  plant,  employes  are  less  apt  to  cause 
trouble  by  asking  for  favors.  On  the  other  hand,  when  orders  are 
crowding  the  firm,  the  employes  have  the  advantage  of  a  better 
bargaining  position,  and  consequently  use  the  favorable  oppor- 
tunity to  obtain  what  they  want — witness  the  numerous  strikes  at 
munitions  plants  in  the  United  States  during  the  spring  and  summer 
of  1915.  In  order  to  obtain  the  whip-hand  in  the  situation,  especially 
in  highly  unionized  industries,  employers  endeavor  to  obtain  an 


60  The  AiirMls  of  the  American  Academy 

excess  of  men  and  machines  so  that  part  time  may  become  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception.  One  prominent  Philadelphia  hosiery 
manufacturer  says,  "Yes,  I  want  to  have  enough  help  and  machines 
so  that  my  help  will  regularly  get  through  the  day  at  half  past  three 
or  half  past  four  or  five  o'clock.  They  don't  ask  for  higher  wages 
then  as  they  do  when  they  see  orders  piling  up."  This  situation 
is  apt  to  manifest  itself  by  a  firm  having  a  number  of  plants  in 
different  localities,  most  of  which  do  not  ordinarily  run  at  full 
capacity,  or  furnish  full-time  employment.  When  a  strike  at 
any  one  plant  occurs,  it  costs  the  company  little  or  nothing  to 
divert  the  orders  to  its  other  plants.  Since  it  can  continue  the 
strike  indefinitely  with  no  extra  cost,  it  is  sure  to  win. 

A  third  cause  which  leads  to  this  situation  is  a  decline  in  an 
industry  or  the  failure  of  an  industry  to  grow  as  fast  as  had  been 
anticipated  when  the  expansion  of  plant  took  place.  In  the  over- 
expanded  plant,  the  only  advantage  to  be  secured  from  the  other- 
wise unproductive  investment  of  capital  is  to  keep  force  enough  to 
man  the  entire  plant— and  distribute  the  work  among  them  all. 
The  excess  labor  reserve  insures  prompt  deliveries  and  tends  to 
discourage  labor  agitation.  Under  these  conditions,  labor  unions 
frequently  insist  upon  the  firms  distributing  the  work  among  all 
those  in  the  trade.  Labor  unions  thus  help  to  hold  workers  in 
decaying  trades;  and  the  worker  himself  feels  that  by  leaving  his 
present  trade  he  may  sacrifice  his  skill,  endanger  his  family  and 
perhaps  miss  an  unexpected  boom  in  the  present  work. 

In  the  fourth  place,  employers  fail  to  train  certain  members 
of  the  working  force  to  perform  more  than  one  single  specialized 
task.  This  means  that  each  department,  each  floor,  each  task 
must  either  carry  or  have  available  a  sufficient  number  of  workers 
to  satisfy  its  maximum  demand  for  employes.  This  practice  is 
illustrated  by  the  case  of  a  large  hosiery  mill  in  Kensington.  In 
the  doorway  of  that  plant  ready  to  insert  in  the  "Help  Wanted" 
sign  were  the  following  list  of  occupations: 

Examiners 

Boarders 

Winders 

Knitters 

Girls 


Steadying  Employment  61 

Boys 

Pairers 

Toppers 

Loopers 

Folders 

Welters 

Menders 

In  answer  to  a  question  whether  workers  were  ever  trained 
to  do  more  than  one  task  so  that  an  excess  of  workers  in  one  de- 
partment might  do  work  in  another  department,  the  head  of  the 
firm  answered  "No."  Perhaps  this  answer  should  not  be  taken 
literally,  since  in  almost  every  hosiery  concern  employes  are  shifted 
from  one  task  to  another.  However,  it  is  true  that  there  is  too 
great  a  tendency  to  train  workers  for  one  and  only  one  task  in  most 
manufacturing  concerns. 

In  front  of  a  large  clothing  house  in  Philadelphia  there  is 
a  bulletin  board  on  which  the  concern  is  constantly  making  known 
its  wants  for  workmen  and  workwomen.     It  recently  read: 

Ticket  girls 

Sewers 

Girls 

Edge  basters 

Feller  hands 

Canvas  basters 

Pressers 

It  is  not  known  whether  this  firm  trains  a  percentage  of  its 
employes  to  work  interchangeably  in  different  departments  as 
occasion  may  require  or  not.  However,  this  bulletin  board  list, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  list  that  hung  in  the  doorway  of  the 
hosiery  firm,  shows  the  specialized  ability  sought  even  in  simple 
operations.  It  also  serves  to  illustrate  that  unless  an  employe, 
who  works  at  such  a  detailed  task,  is  trained  to  do  more  than 
one  thing,  he  or  she  must  in  a  great  many  cases  be  subject  to  much 
irregular  employment.  If  one  department  cannot  call  on  employes 
in  some  other  department  to  help  it  over  a  busy  period,  it  must 
either  carry  normally  an  excess  of  workers,  or  frequently  call  in 
and  lay  off  extra  help  as  required.  With  each  department  thus 
carrying  a  separate  margin,  the  labor  reserve  for  the  entire  plant 


62  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

mounts  high.  No  matter  whether  it  is  the  practice  of  the  firm  to 
lay  these  extra  men  off  as  soon  as  the  need  for  them  ceases,  or 
whether  they  are  all  retained  and  the  work  rotated  among  the  force, 
unemployment  to  a  large  degree  must  result. 

This  reserve  trouble  is  being,  to  a  considerable  extent,  ob- 
viated by  using  as  far  as  possible  a  common  reserve  for  different 
departments.  In  the  lower  grades  of  work,  this  is  done  simply 
by  seeing  to  it  that  before  such  labor  is  laid  off,  there  is  no  work 
in  any  other  department.  In  the  higher  grades  of  help,  however, 
the  problem  is  more  complex.  Some  few  firms  systematically 
train  all  or  even  a  small  portion  of  their  help  to  do  (well)  two  or 
three  tasks  other  than  chosen  specialties.  All  departments  then 
have  a  common  reserve,  which  can  be  shifted  as  occasion  demands. 
Or,  if  a  wide  seasonal  change  in  the  nature  of  the  work  takes  place, 
the  majority  of  the  members  of  the  working  force  simply  change  to 
a  new  occupation.  This  accomplishes,  at  least,  an  avoidance  of  an 
excessive  labor  reserve  for  that  plant  and  continuity  of  employ- 
ment for  those  on  its  payroll. 

The  superintendent  of  a  large  printing  plant  (outside  of  Phila- 
delphia) who  has  followed  out  this  idea  in  training  women  workers 
described  their  methods  in  a  letter  as  follows: 

Many  of  our  girls  know  how  to  operate  three  different  machines  and  are 
expert  at  one  or  more  of  the  manual  operations,  such  as  pasting,  gathering,  hand- 
folding,  gold-laying,  etc.  That  they  have  this  knowledge  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
scientific  management  has 

First: 

Demonstrated  the  advantage  both  to  the  firm  and  employes  of  training 
workers  to  do  more  than  one  kind  of  work. 

Second: 

Made  it  possible  to  select  employes  who  can  learn  to  do  the  difTerent  kinds  of 
work  efficiently. 

Third: 

Furnished  facilities  for  training  the  people  in  the  shortest  time  and  with  the 
least  effort. 

Fourth: 

Furnished  an  incentive  for  the  worker.  This  incentive  may  be  either  finan- 
cial or  the  opportunity  for  advancement  or  both. 

With  these  selected  and  trained  workers,  with  a  normal  amount  of  work,  our 
regular  employes  will  have  practically  no  lost  time  even  during  the  slack  season. 


Steadying  Employment  63 

and  their  pay  should  average  from  20  per  cent  to  30  per  cent  more  than  under 
the  old  system.  Workers  properly  taught  soon  become  bonus  earners.  Having 
earned  bonus  on  one  kind  of  work  they  "get  the  habit"  and  when  put  to  other 
work  are  not  satisfied  until  thej'  can  earn  bonus  on  the  new  job. 

The  training  of  workers  to  do  several  kinds  of  work  eflRciently,  the  central 
control  of  the  work  and  good  routing  make  it  possible: 

1.  To  do  a  certain  amount  of  work  with  fewer  employes 

2.  Reduce  cost 

3.  Give  workers  a  higher  wage 

4.  Give  workers  more  steady  employment 

5.  What  is  perhaps  most  important  of  all,  it  stimulates  and  develops  the  workers 

There  can  be  no  question  but  that  without  scientific  management  we  could 
not  have  trained  the  workers  to  do  the  different  kinds  of  work  and  they  would  not 
have  had  as  regular  employment. 

A  convenient  mechani.sm  which  assists  in  this  work  is  an  expense  charge 
symbol  which  we  call  "retainers."  In  case  we  have  a  high-priced  employe  and 
give  him  work  of  a  somewhat  lower  grade  than  that  which  he  is  accustomed  to 
perform,  our  cost-keeping  system  permits  us  to  charge  the  excess  up  to  "retainers," 
which  latter  is  then  spread  as  a  general  business  expense  over  the  whole  product. 
We  use  the  same  accounting  device  for  taking  care  of  the  superannuated  employes 
who  are  no  longer  able  to  compete  in  the  matter  of  output  but  the  question  of 
whose  discharge  cannot  be  considered. 

In  some  cases  the  responsibility  for  not  reducing  the  labor 
reserve  does  not  rest  with  the  employers.  Labor  unions  not  in- 
frequently oppose  the  training  of  employes  to  do  other  tasks,  under 
the  impression  that  each  trade,  by  defending  itself  from  the  entrance 
of  outside  workers,  is  bettering  itself.  While  some  immediate  gain 
may  accrue  to  the  trade  thus  protecting  itself,  it  is  a  practice  that 
surely  does  not  benefit  labor  as  a  whole;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether, 
in  the  long  run,  it  will  benefit  the  trade  involved,  since  conditions 
will  frequently  be  reversed. 

4.     Reduction  of  the  Labor  Turnover 

By  the  term  "labor  turnover"  is  ordinarily  meant  the  pro- 
portion between  the  total  number  of  persons  hired  during  a  year 
and  the  average  number  employed  during  the  year.  For  example, 
if  a  firm  requires  500  persons  to  run  its  business,  and,  during  the 
course  of  the  year,  has  passed  through  its  doors  500  more  without 
enlarging  the  force,  that  firm  is  said  to  have  a  labor  turnover  of 
100  per  cent. 

This  method  of  determining  labor  turnover  is  too  crude  to  be 


64  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  much  use.  Figures  of  turnover  so  gathered  have  little  or  no 
significance.  One  year  the  amount  of  necessary  hiring  might  be 
very  high  due  to  sickness,  deaths,  marriages,  strikes  or  some  other 
cause  over  which  the  employer  has  little  or  no  control.  The  fol- 
lowing year,  due  to  an  absence  of  these  causes,  the  apparent  turn- 
over might  be  very  low.  The  actual  amount  of  unnecessary  hiring 
and  firing  may  nevertheless  have  remained  constant.  To  make 
our  labor  turnover  figures  significant,  we  must  separate  the  neces- 
sary hirings  from  the  unnecessary  hirings.  We  must  separate  the 
necessary  hirings  which  grow  out  of  an  enlargement  of  the  plant  or 
which  are  necessary  to  replace  unavoidable  withdrawals  due  to  sick- 
ness, promotion,  death,  etc.,  from  the  unnecessary  hirings,  which  are 
in  large  part  the  result  of  poor  management  in  the  choosing,  assign- 
ing, directing,  etc.,  of  employes.  It  is  this  unnecessary  hiring  which 
indicates  industrial  turmoil  and  it  is  this  that  our  labor  turnover 
figures  should  measure. 

To  determine  such  a  refined  labor  turnover  there  should  be 
deducted  from  the  total  number  hired  during  the  year  the  number 
by  which  the  force  was  permanently  increased  during  the  year. 
This  increase  should  be  determined  by  subtracting  the  average 
number  on  the  payroll  at  the  first  four  paydays  at  the  beginning  of. 
the  preceding  year  from  the  average  number  on  the  payroll  at  the 
first  four  paydays  of  this  year.  This  might  be  a  minus  quantity. 
Moreover,  there  should  be  deducted  from  the  total  number  of  hirings 
the  number  of  excusable  or  necessary  withdrawals.  The  propor- 
tion which  this  bears  to  the  total  number  on  the  payroll  represents 
the  refined  labor  turnover.  The  total  number  on  the  payroll  is 
found  by  securing  the  average  number  on  the  payroll  at  the  various 
paydays. 

For  example,  we  may  suppose  that  a  firm  had  an  average 
number  on  its  payroll  of  the  year  of  500.  During  the  year  500 
persons  may  have  been  hired.  The  permanent  force  may  have 
been  increased  by  50  and  there  may  have  been  necessary  with- 
drawals amounting  to  25  during  the  course  of  the  year.  To  pro- 
vide for  the  permanent  increase  and  replace  those  who  withdrew 
for  an  entirely  unavoidable  cause,  this  firm,  therefore,  was  justified 
in  hiring  75  persons.  Deducting  these  necessary  hirings  from  the 
total  number  of  hirings,  we  may  assume  that  the  total  amount  of 


Steadying  Employment  65 

unnecessary  hirings  amounted  to  425.  In  other  words,  the  firm  had 
a  refined  turnover  of  425/500,  or  85  per  cent. 

Even  this  "refined"  process  represents  but  the  crudest  sort  of 
method  of  determining  labor  turnover.  The  investigation  and 
study  of  labor  turnover  is  only  just  beginning. 

The  question  that  immediately  comes  up  is :  What  is  the  con- 
nection between  labor  turnover  and  unemployment?  Surely,  if 
"A"  is  discharged  and  "B"  is  hired  to  take  his  place,  the  number 
employed  or  unemployed  is  not  altered.  However,  high  labor  turn- 
over does  affect  unemployment  in  the  following  fundamental  ways: 

In  the  first  place,  as  one  manager  puts  it  in  a  letter:  ''The 
answer  is  obvious,  however,  to  anybody  who  has  been  engaged 
in  employment  work,  that  all  these  moves  break  down  the  self- 
reliance  of  the  workers  and  decentralize  the  problem  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  makes  it  difficult  to  study.  I  know,  in  particular, 
of  one  man  who  was  found,  through  circumstances  over  which  he 
had  no  control,  to  change  his  job  eight  times  during  one  year.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  he  was  estimated  to  have  declined  50  per  cent 
in  efficiency  from  that  cause  alone."  In  other  words,  the  rapid 
shift,  or  flow  of  labor  from  shop  to  shop,  tends  to  increase  unemploy- 
ment by  taking  men  from  the  more  efficient  classes — in  which 
workers  are  apt  to  be  scarce — and  placing  them  in  the  ranks  of  the 
less  skilled  and  unskilled  groups  which  are  usually  already  over- 
crowded. 

In  the  second  place,  as  long  as  there  are  frequent  changes  in 
personnel  in  many  classes  of  labor,  by  just  so  much  will  there  be 
less  chance  for  the  development  of  skill  and  a  good  personal  rela- 
tionship between  employer  and  employe.  Without  these  abstract 
assets  the  average  employer  feels  less  financial  and  personal  incen- 
tive to  ''hold  on"  to  employes  by  furnishing  steady  employment. 

In  the  third  place,  a  generally  high  labor  turnover  creates  an 
excessively  high  labor  reserve  in  certain  industries.  With  the 
kaleidoscopic  movement  of  labor  in  and  out  of  factories  the  actual 
requirements  of  an  industry  can  be  but  vaguely  known.  The 
man  who  is  "out"  does  not  know  what  the  demand  for  help  in  his 
particular  line  of  work  is.  He  feels  that,  anyway,  the  kaleidoscope 
will  soon  displace  some  one  from  a  job  and  give  it  to  him.  This 
reasoning  that  "  I  will  soon  get  a  chance"  brings  an  excess  of  workers 


r 


1 

cJ 

"ZT)    ca 

!w 

^ 

-r   -^^ 

o 

M^ 

^  x: 

s. 

rn 

■ —    "O 

r-) 

_^ 

rx. 

o 

'it 

1^ 

c    tn 

-< 

_c 

.g    £ 

c^» 

\~ 

o 

°  in 

> 

ro 

^ 

vD 

^  — 

U- 

—  av 

s: 

— • 

vO 

C^  — 

<>J 

CJ 

c:    o 

iH 

-n 

til 

CJ    -t- 

iV 

0) 

■cno 

Cl 

Cl. 

?    - 

cJ 

cr 

? 

o    ^ 

tJ 

o 

O 

O     «0 

D' 


"rt     o       k)          s          cri                 £                to 

i      i         i            i            4                   i                 i         ' ' 

i-fsSs5^5            f,%          Sif" 

S  r 


Steadying  Employment  67 

into  many  industries,  and  unemployment  results.  The  best  illus- 
tration of  this  is  found  in  the  dock  situation  (see  page  29). 

Finally,  in  the  fourth  place,  employers  are  just  beginning  to 
realize  the  costs  to  them  through  high  labor  turnover.  If  they  fully 
appreciate  the  money  loss  that  is  sustained  through  excessive  hiring 
and  firing — through  high  labor  turnover — and  if  they  realized  that 
irregular  employment  was  one  of  the  important  causes  of  high 
labor  turnover  (see  page  43),  they  would  give  more  earnest  atten- 
tion to  the  problem  in  their  plants. 

As  one  employer,  who  has  made  a  careful  study  of  labor  turn- 
over, puts  it,  "The  real  point  of  the  matter  (so  far  as  unemploy- 
ment is  concerned)  is  that  if  you  have  a  trained  worker,  say  at  $18 
a  week,  and  it  becomes  evident  that  work  is  going  to  be  slack  for 
ten  days  or  a  couple  of  weeks,  it  is  cheaper  to  retain  the  man,  with 
his  experience  and  knowledge  of  the  company's  way  of  doing  busi- 
ness, than  it  is  to  engage  a  new  man,  without  experience,  at  the  end 
of  that  period.  This  argument  can  be  pushed  too  far,  but  at 
present  hardly  any  attention  is  being  given  to  it  at  all." 

How  great  is  the  active  labor  turnover  among  Philadelphia 
firms?  Few  firms  make  any  attempt  to  keep  records  on  this  sub- 
ject. In  order  to  measure  roughly  the  extent  of  this  indifference, 
all  of  the  firms  on  twelve  squares  of  one  of  the  leading  streets  in  the 
textile  district  of  Kensington  were  canvassed.  Of  eleven  mills 
who  were  willing  to  discuss  the  point,  all  had  no  records  of  the  size 
of  the  labor  turnover — at  best  only  a  rough  idea.  To  supplement 
further  this  conclusion,  twenty-five  confidential  letters  of  inquiry 
were  sent  to  representative  textile  firms.  Of  the  seven  answers  re- 
ceived, only  two  possessed  any  records  which  showed  the  size  of  the 
labor  turnover. 

In  a  textile  firm  employing  labor  of  medium  skill,  a  study  was 
made  of  the  labor  turnover,  and  the  speed  of  the  movement  of 
labor  through  the  shop  in  the  Axminster  Carpet  Mill  "A."  The 
foreman  had  kept  a  hst  of  the  dates  on  which  help  entered  and 
left  his  employ  for  the  period  of  1907-15.  In  this  mill,  as  has  been 
before  pointed  out,  conditions  were  favorable  for  a  low  turnover, 
because  style  was  not  such  an  important  element  in  the  goods,  and 
slack  seasons  could  be  used  to  pile  up  large  quantities  of  stock.  By 
compiling  the  foreman's  records  it  was  found  that  75  per  cent  of  the 
men  and  GO  per  cent  of  the  women  employes  remained  in  the  em- 


Ji 

U 


•      Q) 


t) 


^ 


0 

in 

0 
0 
X 


c 


iQ        Q) 


:>     (D 

0 

0       d) 


1^ 

0)     A 

j:     15 


0 
0 


in     in 


0     iS 


n)     (1) 


(1) 
Cl- 
in 

? 

i 

Q)      C 

■5    U- 


0 

(. 

V 

V 

5 
C 

(I 

j: 

-+- 

in     i/) 
rt    ■- 

«  f^ 


0 


9- 
i 


0 


0) 

c 
0     "■ 


(1)    Y 


Q) 

C 


I^  fsaseziJDUi  4uauEiu^Z)d  snuiui 


q  lenuue  10  >*ac[Uir 


*2AV 


lO 


p3?foiduj2  jiaqujnu  36ejaAV 


Steadying  Employment  69 

ploy  of  the  firm  less  than  one  year.  They  also  showed  that  48  per 
cent  of  the  men  and  37  per  cent  of  the  women  employes  remained  in 
the  employ  less  than  ten  weeks.  Yet  the  foreman  asserted  that 
"most  of  the  employes  do  not  do  good  work  until  they  have  been 
with  us  eight  weeks."  During  the  process  of  compiling  these 
statistics  he  evidenced  considerable  interest.  On  seeing  the  final 
results,  his  comment  was,  "Who'd  a'  thought  it?"  These  results 
are  shown  graphically  and  in  greater  detail  in  fig.  23. 

The  above  figures  represent  merely  the  speed  with  which 
labor  flows  in  and  out  of  the  shop.  Measured  in  terms  of  the 
annual  number  of  hirings  in  excess  of  the  permanent  increases, 
the  average  of  such  hirings  was  found  to  be  nine-tenths  as  great 
as  the  number  of  employes.     This  is  shown  graphically  in  fig.  24. 

Many  concrete  illustrations  of  the  size  of  the  turnover  in  many 
Philadelphia  firms  might  be  cited.  In  view  of  the  absence  of  any 
comprehensive  information  for  Philadelphia,  a  study  made  by 
Magnus  Alexander,  of  the  General  Electric  Company,  throws  gen- 
eral light  on  the  size  of  the  labor  turnover.  The  result  is  probably 
fairly  typical  of  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Alexander  made  a  study  of  the 
size  of  the  labor  turnover  among  all  classes  of  employes  (except 
those  belonging  to  the  commercial  and  engineering  organization 
and  the  general  executive  staff)  in  a  large  number  of  factories  of  all 
sizes  in  the  United  States  and  Europe.  This  study  was  made 
during  the  year  1912 — which  may  be  considered  a  normal  industrial 
year.  The  investigation  showed  that  the  labor  turnover  (including 
necessary  and  unnecessary  hirings)  of  these  firms  was  over  100  per 
cent.  On  January  1,  1912,  38,668  persons  were  employed  in  all 
of  these  concerns.  On  December  31,  1912,  46,796  persons  were 
employed.  The  increase  in  the  working  forces  during  the  year, 
therefore,  totalled  8,128.  Yet,  the  records  show  that  during  the 
same  period  44,365  people  were  engaged,  indicating  that  36,237 
people  had  dropped  out  of  the  employment  during  the  year.  In 
other  words,  about  5^  times  as  many  people  had  to  be  engaged  dur- 
ing the  year  as  constituted  the  permanent  increase  of  force  at  tHe 
end  of  that  period. 

Making  allowance  for  the  increase  to  the  force,  and  for  removals 
by  death,  illness  and  other  unavoidable  cause,  Mr.  Alexander  con- 
cludes that  practically  the  engagement  of  22,140  could  readily  be 


70  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

defended.  What  should  be  said,  however,  of  the  fact  that  22,225 
were  engaged  above  the  necessary  requirement? 

The  wide  scope  of  this  study  makes  it  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  its  results  are,  on  the  average,  typical  for  the  mechanical  in- 
dustries in  Philadelphia  as  well  as  for  any  other  industrial  center. 

Altogether  aside  from  the  degenerating  effect  of  this  state  of 
affairs  on  the  employe,  it  represents  a  big  leak  to  employers.  Dif- 
ferent Philadelphia  employers  estimate  the  cost  of  unnecessarily 
discharging  an  average  wage-earner  at  from  $30  to  $100,  but  here 
also  there  is  little  real  knowledge  of  cost.  Mr.  Alexander's  figures 
may  be  taken  as  typical.  Based  on  estimates  by  employers  for 
different  classes  of  labor,  Mr.  Alexander  figures  that  the  loss  in- 
curred by  these  firms  in  unnecessarily  hiring  22,225  persons  during 
the  year  1912,  as  approximately  $775,000.  How  little  this  loss  is 
appreciated  among  Philadelphia  textile  firms  as  a  whole  is  shown  in 
the  statement  above  referring  to  the  small  percentage  of  firms  who 
keep  records. 

Granted  the  situation  and  its  cost  to  employer  and  employe, 
what  can  be  done  about  it?  It  is  a  well  established  fact  that  high 
labor  turnover  can  be  very  largely  and  profitably  reduced  by  greater 
care  and  efficiency  in  management. 

The  experience  of  one  Philadelphia  concern,  manufacturers  of 
a  standard  product  which  is  almost  without  seasons,  is  significant. 
This  firm  employs  nearly  1,000  persons.  In  1911,  when  it  first 
began  to  consider  seriously  the  problem  of  excessive  hiring  and 
discharging  of  help,  its  turnover  (based  on  necessary  and  unnec- 
essary hirings)  was  100  per  cent.  The  next  three  years  witnessed 
a  steady  reduction  in  the  turnover,  which,  by  1914,  was  less  than 
20  per  cent.  Equally  significant  of  the  possibilities  in  the  reduc- 
tion of  labor  turnover  is  the  case  of  a  textile  firm  well  known  for  the 
consideration  shown  for  the  welfare  of  its  employes.  This  firm  has 
a  turnover  so  low  that  there  is  a  common  saying  to  the  effect  that  if 

a man  is  "on  the  streets"  there's  something  wrong  with  the 

man.''  The  experience  of  a  third  firm,  a  cloth  firm  outside  of  Phila- 
delphia, simply  adds  evidence  that  it  is  within  the  power  of  indi- 
vidual managers  to  reduce  the  labor  turnover.     This  firm,  by  a 

^Yet  it  is  significant  that  when  this  firm,  one  of  the  best  managed  in  Philadel- 
phia, recently  increased  its  force  by  300,  over  2,200  persons  had  to  be  hired  to  se- 
cure the  300. 


Steadying  Employment  71 

scientific  study  of  the  problem,  and  as  a  result  of  earnest  efforts  to 
secure  employment,  reduced  its  turnover  bj^  80  per  cent  from  June, 
1910,  to  July,  1914. 

What  are  the  methods  used  by  these  firms  or  approved  .by 
the  more  progressive  employing  concerns  by  which  this  terrific 
cost  can  be  reduced,  after  management  once  becomes  aroused  to 
the  importance  of  the  problem? 

It  is  apparent  that  if  any  impression  is  to  be  made  on  the  ex- 
cessive labor  turnover,  a  great  deal  more  attention  and  study  must 
be  given  the  "man"  problem  as  contrasted  with  the  "material  and 
machine"  problems. 

The  specific  methods  used  by  the  above  firms,  and  most  widely 
approved  by  progressive  concerns,  to  secure  a  lower  labor  turnover, 
are  three: 

A.  Better  methods  of  hiring  and  firing. 

B.  Better  methods  of  training  help. 

C.  Reduction  of  fluctuations  in  employment. 

A.     Better  Methods  of  Hiring  and  Discharging  Help 

The  greater  attention  to  the  "man"  problem  must  manifest 
itself,  above  all  things,  in  much  more  attention  to  and  study  of 
scientific  methods  of  hiring  and  discharging  men.  The  first  re- 
quirement is  that  the  handling  of  the  employment  problem  should 
not  be  left  to  the  foremen  of  different  departments,  but  should  be 
transferred  to  some  high  grade  functionalized  employment  official 
or  department,  according  to  the  size  of  the  plant.  As  the  manager 
of  the  cloth  firm  previously  referred  to  says:  "For  the  employment 
function,  every  industrial  organization  should  have  some  one 
person  or  department  whose  sole  business  is  the  study  and  handling 
of  this  problem.  This  is  a  function  that  cannot  be  administered  by 
some  head  or  underling  in  an  operating  department." 

Unfortunately,  the  prevailing  practice  among  the  textile  firms 
in  Philadelphia  is  to  leave  the  hiring  and  firing  to  the  foremen  of 
different  departments.  The  canvass  on  "X"  street  (page  G7) 
showed  that,  of  eight  firms  who  discussed  the  matter,  six  left  the 
hiring  entirely  to  the  foremen  of  different  departments.  In  two, 
the  hiring  was  done  by  one  functionalized  oflftcer  for  the  entire 
plant.     To  supplement  this  canvass,  a  number  of  inquiries  were 


72  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

directed  to  the  managers  of  twenty-five  firms  scattered  at  random 
throughout  different  Hues  of  the  textile  industry.  Of  eight  answers, 
six  indicated  that  the  hiring  and  discharging  of  help  was  left  to  the 
entire  charge  of  foremen. 

The  result  of  this  lack  of  centralized  employment  is  an  almost 
complete  lack  of  touch  between  the  responsible  heads  and  in- 
telligence of  the  concern  and  the  employment  problem.  A  state- 
ment that  is  applicable  to  many  concerns  was  made  by  one  of  the 
heads  (in  charge  of  records)  of  a  hosiery  concern.  ''We  would 
never  know  here  in  the  office  when  a  person  is  being  taken  on  or 
laid  off  if  their  names  were  not  sent  down  every  two  weeks  to  re- 
ceive pay."  In  many  concerns  no  one  but  the  foreman  has  any 
record  even  of  the  names  of  employes.  In  the  office  workers  appear 
as  number  so-and-so,  which,  for  all  the  firm  knows,  may  and  often 
does  mean,  some  one  this  week  and  someone  else  next  week. 

This  lax  method  of  hiring  and  firing  by  foremen  means  that 
the  choosing  of  help  is  left  in  charge  of  a  man  who  is  already  over- 
burdened with  other  duties,  and  who,  though  he  may  possess 
a  certain  amount  of  technical  skill  and  aptness  in  the  processes 
of  a  particular  department,  has  not  the  background  for  the  suc- 
cessful employing  of  men.  As  a  result,  it  becomes  a  secondary 
matter;  and  misfit  employes,  who  are  apt  to  become  discouraged 
and  leave,  result.  An  extreme  case  of  the  lack  of  care  under  the 
foreman  system  is  told  of  a  Philadelphia  textile  factory.  This 
firm  advertised  for  help  on  a  certain  day.  On  the  day  indicated  a 
large  crowd  of  the  jobless  had  assembled.  When  the  doors  were 
thrown  open  a  mad  scramble  ensued  as  each  person  tried  to  grab 
a  machine.  Whoever  got  a  machine  remained.  No  selection  was 
made.  Surely  this  struggle  was  not  one  guaranteed  to  eliminate 
the  unfit — the  inefficient — or  accurately  fit  men  to  jobs. 

In  another  case,  the  foreman  who  was  to  choose  new  help 
threw  a  number  of  apples  into  the  assembled  crowd.  Whoever 
caught  the  apples  got  the  job. 

The  foreman  is  ordinarily  incapable  of  judicious  firing.  Too 
often  he  uses  his  power  to  fire  as  a  means  of  discipline,  or  as  one 
large  employer  puts  it, — "to  keep  the  fear  of  God  in  their  hearts." 
Perhaps  the  ideal  attitude  toward  the  firing  of  help  is  suggested 
in  the  case  of  the  large  Philadelphia  firm  who  orders  a  rigid  inves- 
tigation whenever  a  person  voluntarily  leaves  their  employ,  to 


Steadying  Employment  73 

ascertain  why  anyone  should  ever  want  to  leave.  The  head  of  one 
of  the  largest  employing  concerns  in  Philadelphia  very  deftly 
suggests  the  evils  of  leaving  the  employment  function  in  the  hands 
of  low  grade  men  such  as  foremen  often  are,  when  he  says,  "Any 
mutt  can  fire  a  man." 

Furthermore,  the  unsupervised  authority  of  the  foreman 
contributes  to  high  labor  turnover  in  the  every-day  relationship 
with  his  employes.  Not  merely  does  he  bring  in  misfit  help — who 
will  soon  leave — and  discharges  needlessly,  but  also  he  unconsciously 
drives  many  away  by  his  sheer  arbitrariness.  One  of  the  largest 
employers  in  Philadelphia,  who  works  under  the  "foreman"  system, 
says,  "I  have  time  and  again  seen  my  foreman  do  things  that  were 
absolutely  cruel;  and  yet  I  am  powerless  to  prevent  it."  A  large 
lace  manufacturer  told  the  Philadelphia  Secretary  of  the  National 
Lace  Weavers'  Union,  "I  have  more  strikes  and  labor  disputes  as 
a  result  of  the  foolish  and  arbitrary  acts  of  some  foreman  than  any 
other  cause."  Closer  supervision  of  the  relationship  between  fore- 
man and  w^orker  by  a  responsible  executive  should  work  toward  the 
eradication  of  much  needless  withdrawals  from  the  employ  of  the 
firm. 

The  result  of  the  control  of  hiring  and  firing  by  foremen  and 
the  superiority  of  control  by  a  functionalized  employment  depart- 
ment is  evident  from  the  testimony  of  the  following  employers. 
One  employer  says : 

I  know  of  cases  of  foremen  who  frankly  acknowledged  to  their  intimates  that 
they  make  a  practice  of  discharging  so  many  people  once  in  so  often  to  keep  alive 
a  healthy  appreciation  of  the  dependence  of  employes  upon  them.  I  know  of 
other  foremen  who  have  opinions  which  practically  amount  to  superstitions,  so 
baseless  are  they,  as  to  the  significance  of  certain  unimportant  details  in  an  em- 
ploye's work  or  manner.  I  could  go  on  with  such  statements  almost  indefinitely. 
The  real  gist  of  the  whole  proposition,  however,  is  that  the  company  which  is  not 
wilHng  to  take  a  definite  stand  on  this  proposition  of  centralized  employment 
is  bound  to  have  a  labor  turnover  far  in  excess  of  what  it  needs  to  be,  with  a  large 
consequent  expense  to  itself  therefrom,  and  thereby  to  contribute  to  the  unem- 
ployment problem  of  the  city  or  town  in  which  it  is  situated.  I  have  never  been 
quite  clear  in  my  mind  as  to  why  it  is  that  the  average  foreman  or  department 
head  feels  his  authority  to  have  been  impaired  when  the  employment  function  is 
taken  away  from  him.  Such  is  the  case,  however,  and  it  makes  a  very  diflBcult 
factor  in  the  problem. 


74  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

One  of  the  heads  of  a  forging  and  finishing  shop  in  Philadel- 
phia describes  as  follows  the  experience  and  efforts  of  their  firm  in 
dealing  with  their  own  employment  problem : 

a.  Belter  control  of  hiring  men. 

It  is  common  practice  for  the  foreman  of  each  department  to  be  given  full 
authority  to  hire  their  help. 

As  foremen  generally  are  not  of  much  higher  type  than  the  average  workman, 
this  practice  is  very  unsatisfactory.  Men  are  hired  without  thought  as  to  their 
fitness  for  the  work  they  are  to  do,  but  simply  because  they  happen  to  be  on  the 
spot  when  a  man  is  wanted. 

As  the  turnover  of  help  in  a  factory  is  such  an  expensive  proposition,  it  seems 
advisable  to  have  both  the  hiring  and  discharging  of  men  supervised  by  some  ex- 
ecutive who  can  analyze  the  fitness  and  qualifications  of  an  applicant. 

When  foremen  need  help  in  a  department  they  can  apply  to  this  executive, 
and  from  his  records  he  would  be  able  to  furnish  help  as  needed  and  of  a  type  that 
would  be  more  likely  to  give  satisfaction. 

b.  Better  control  of  discharging  men. 

No  foreman  should  be  permitted  to  discharge  men,  as  quite  often  discharges 
are  made  as  much  on  account  of  personal  prejudice  as  on  account  of  inefficiency. 
Again,  discharge  for  inefficiency  is  a  sign  of  weakness  in  the  organization,  as, 
if  a  man  possesses  the  ability  to  do  the  work  when  he  is  hired  it  means  that  the 
foreman  has  not  fulfilled  his  duty  if  the  man  is  a  failure,  except  in  extreme  cases. 

After  paying  good  money  to  break  a  man  in,  it  is  the  height  of  extravagance 
to  replace  him  with  a  green  man  at  an  additional  expense  if  it  is  possible  to  raise 
such  a  man  to  your  standard. 

If  foremen  are  allowed  to  hire  and  discharge  indiscriminately,  it  often  hap- 
pens that  men  are  laid  off  in  one  department  when  they  are  badly  needed  in 
another,  and  that  green  men  are  hired  where  needed  when  such  department 
could  have  had  the  pick  of  the  ones  laid  off. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  a  man  who  has  been  in  the  factory  in  any  capacity 
long  enough  to  know  his  way  around  and  get  acquainted  to  some  degree  with  the 
product  is  a  much  better  prospect  for  any  other  department  than  a  green  man 
taken  off  the  street. 

Discharges  for  inefficiency  or  indiscriminate  laying  off  of  help  tends  to  in- 
crease the  unemployment  problem. 

0.     Analyzed  factory  conditions. 

We  have  found  that  workmen  drift  from  one  place  to  another  if  not  thor- 
oughly satisfied  and  that  the  turnover  of  labor  in  the  average  factory  is  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  payroll.  This  turnover  results  in  great  expense  to  the  manu- 
facturer, as  the  breaking  in  of  new  help  on  any  work  requiring  skill  wiU  cost  at 
least  $50  to  $75  per  head.  The  turnover  also  results  in  a  great  increase  in  the 
floating  idle  population  of  a  city. 

One  of  the  duties  of  a  functionalized  employment  department  will  be  to  col- 


Steadying  Employment  75 

lect  data  which  will  throw  light  on  each  company's  own  emplojrment  problem. 
One  employer  says: 

To  begin  with,  what  is  everybody's  business  is  nobody's,  in  the  employment 
game  as  well  as  anywhere  else.  Men  are  picked  to  run  a  department  on  the  basis 
of  technical  skill  or  aptitude  in  the  processes  of  that  department,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  people  is  purely  a  secondary  matter  with  them.  As  a  result  of  this,  in 
the  first  place,  records  are  entirely  lacking  by  which  a  company  can  study  its 
own  employment  problem  and  learn  from  experience.  If  a  centralized  employ- 
ment department  did  nothing  else  than  to  compile  and  issue  the  statistics  of 
employment,  I  believe  that  it  would  pay  any  company  to  maintain  such  a  de- 
partment. When  it  is  considered,  however,  that  in  any  industry  work  is  uneven 
in  different  departments  and  that  the  individual  being  fired  from  one  department 
might  be  a  valuable  find  in  some  other  department  which  has  a  requisition  in  for 
additional  help,  the  bearing  of  the  question  becomes  even  plainer.^ 

B.     Better  Methods  oj  Training  Help 

A  second  method  of  reducing  high  labor  turnover  is  by  the 
adoption  of  more  effective  methods  of  training  help.  One  of  the 
frequent  causes  of  workers  quitting  is  the  fact  that  they  can't  "get 
on  to  the  work."  While  this  is  often  due  to  innate  incapacity,  it 
more  often  arises  out  of  the  lack  of  any  effective  system  in  the  plant 
for  the  instruction  of  new  men.  The  supervision  of  the  training 
in  many  cases  will  become  one  of  the  functions  of  the  employment 
department  in  a  large  concern. 

In  many  of  the  textile  firms  of  Philadelphia  there  is  either  no 
system  of  training  at  all,  or  else  the  training  consists  solely  in  the 
privilege,  on  the  part  of  the  new  worker,  of  watching  an  older  em- 
ploye for  two  or  three  weeks.  Of  the  twelve  firms  interviewed  on 
"X"  street,  seven  had  no  training  system,  but  depended  solely 
on  securing  skilled  workers  ready  made  off  the  streets.  In  four, 
new  workers  were  "trained"  by  being  allowed  to  work  with  old 
hands  for  two  or  three  weeks.  Some  idea  of  the  thoroughness  of 
such  a  system  in  one  mill  at  least  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  old  hands  were  paid  at  the  rate  of  $1  per  month  to  "train"  new 
hands.  In  one  of  the  twelve  firms,  the  foreman  did  the  instructing. 
Under  such  a  system,  it  is  not  surprising  that  employers  should 
complain  of  a  scarcity  of  skilled  labor,  even  in  the  midst  of  one  of 
the  most  severe  periods  of  unemployment  ever  experienced  in  the 
textile  industries. 

'A  detailed  statement  of  the  organization,  duties  and  advantages  of  a  func- 
tionalized  employment  department,  will  be  found  in  the  May  volume  of  The 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science. 


76  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Of  the  duty  of  the  employer  in  this  respect,  one  employer,  in 
discussing  methods  of  training,  says: 

A  new  employe,  at  the  best,  is  undeveloped  for  the  position  which  he  is 
called  upon  to  fill  in  any  organization,  and,  as  he  has  been  employed  in  order 
steadily  and  permanently  to  fill  a  position  necessary  for  the  objects  of  the  organ- 
ization, he  needs  and  is  entitled  to  especial  attention  in  order  that  he  can  be  de- 
veloped to  fill  that  position  fittingly.  Given  character  and  fitness  for  the  organ- 
ization, the  acquirement  of  skill  in  the  performance  of  a  given  duty  is  generally 
a  matter  of  proper  training  being  provided  by  the  administrative  side  of  the 
organization.  It  must  always  be  remembered  that  skilled  and  fit  men  are  not 
born,  but  made,  and  it  is  an  essential  function  of  any  industrial  organization  to 
train  men  and  make  them  fit  for  specific  position  necessary  to  the  objects  of  the 
organization.  There  is  no  broader  admission  on  the  part  of  a  manager  of  his 
own  inefficiency  and  his  own  lack  of  comprehension  of  his  duties  and  problems 
than  the  oft  heard  complaint  on  his  part  of  the  lack  of  skilled  men. 

Every  improvement  in  training  methods  will  aid  in  improv- 
ing the  unemployment  problem  by  transferring  workers  from 
that  tremendously  overcrowded  class  and  placing  them  in  the 
ranks  of  the  higher  skilled,  in  which  there  is  at  present  frequently 
a  scarcity.    , 

C.     Reducing  the  Fluctuations  in  Employment 

Obviously  the  third  step  in  reducing  labor  turnover  will  be 
the  need  for  a  more  serious  study  of  means  by  which  all  forms  of 
fluctuation  in  employment  may  be  reduced. 

Recognizing  that  the  rise  in  some  form  or  other  of  function- 
alized  employment  departments  is  a  growing  thing,  and  a  thing  to 
be  assisted;  recognizing  also  that  the  problems  that  confront  those 
in  charge  of  employment  work  in  different  firms  are  so  complex 
that  every  manager  needs  to  profit  all  he  can  by  the  experience  of 
every  other  engaged  in  similar  work,  a  number  of  employers,  at 
the  invitation  of  the  Director  of  Public  Works,  met  and  formed  the 
Philadelphia  Association  for  the  Discussion  of  Employment  Prob- 
lems. This  is  a  purely  voluntary  association  for  purposes  of 
study,  involving,  on  the  part  of  members,  no  joint  support  of  each 
other  in  labor  troubles  or  of  any  outside  course  of  action.  Its 
object  is  to  pool  experiences  and  discuss  common  principles  govern- 
ing employment  so  that  the  wastes  experienced  by  both  employer 
and  employe  resulting  from  improper  selection,  direction  and  dis- 
charge of  labor  may  be  eliminated. 


Steadying  Em'ployment  77 

5.     By  a  Closer  Cooperation  Between  the  Manufacturing 
AND  Selling  Ends  of  a  Concern  and  the 
Standardization  of  Product 

It  is  frequently  true  that  a  lack  of  cooperation  between  the 
manufacturing  and  selling  ends  of  a  business  breeds  a  working  at 
cross-purposes,  without  the  joint  idea  of  assuring  continuity  of 
production  and  employment  to  the  manufacturing  end. 

The  textile  industries  in  Philadelphia  suffer  particularly  in 
this  respect.  Among  textile  centers  the  country  over,  Philadel- 
phia is  conspicuous  by  the  extent  to  which  small  mills  compose 
her  textile  business.  A  very  large  percentage  of  the  heads  of  these 
mills  have  at  some  time  in  the  past  come  up  through  the  mills  as 
weavers.  By  dint  of  energy  and  frugality  these  men  have  been 
enabled  to  secure  a  start  and  to  permanently  establish  their  busi- 
ness. Such  a  history  does  not  imply  a  broad  business  experience. 
As  a  result,  many  manufacturers  say,  "We  are  not  sellers,  we  are 
manufacturers.  That's  enough  for  one  man."  A  lack  of  capital 
has  also  contributed  to  this  attitude.  As  a  result,  many  have  con- 
fined themselves  solely  to  the  manufacturing  end  and  given  little 
attention  to  the  selling  end,  which  has  been  turned  over  bodily 
to  sole  selling  agents  usually  in  New  York  City. 

Under  the  arrangements  made,  the  selling  agent  was  fre- 
quently given  a  free-handed  authority.  This  gave  him  power  to 
disregard  continuity  of  production  for  the  employer;  and  he  nat- 
urally bent  his  efforts  to  selling  that  which  was  easiest  for  himself. 
Moreover,  frequently  the  manufacturer  turned  over  to  his  agent 
the  entire  job  of  marketing  his  goods.  The  producer  could  sell 
through  no  other  source.  The  seller  on  the  other  hand  usually 
sold  for  a  number  of  others  who  made  the  same  or  a  very  similar 
grade  of  goods.  The  seller  came  to  represent  the  entire  market  to 
the  manufacturer,  while  the  manufacturer  represented  only  a  small 
part  of  the  business  to  the  seller.  Out  of  the  better  bargaining- 
position  of  the  selling  agent,  he  obtained  an  amount  of  authority 
that  manifested  itself  in  a  number  of  abuses  seriously  contributing 
to  irregular  employment.  In  discussing  these  abuses  especial  refer- 
ence is  made  to  the  hosier}^  industry  (one  of  the  largest  branches  of 
the  textile  industry  in  Philadelphia). 

Abuses:     a.  In  the  first  place,  the  agent  has  nothing  to  force 


78  The  Annals  oj  the  American  Academy 

him  to  make  serious  effort  to  "back  up"  the  employer.  The  selling 
end  has  expected  the  manufacturing  end  to  be  resourceful  enough  to 
cope  with  great  irregularities  in  orders  in  good  times  and  bad. 
When  the  whisper  of  hard  times  was  first  heard,  the  tendency  was 
for  the  agent,  who  had  small  organization  and  little  overhead,  to 
"lay  down"  in  his  efforts  just  at  the  time  when  the  good  of  the  pro- 
ducing concern  demanded  that  the  greatest  pressure  be  placed  on  the 
selling  end.  The  manufacturer,  not  in  touch  with  his  market,  was 
not  able  to  go  out  and  strive  for  more  orders,  even  had  he  been  will- 
ing and  able  to  do  so  and  had  his  contract  with  his  agent  permitted 
it.  His  only  alternative  was  lower  prices.  On  the  other  hand,  one 
Philadelphia  hosiery  manufacturer  who  sells  direct,  spent  $1,000 
extra  this  past  winter  in  pushing  his  sales  so  that  his  organization 
might  be  held  together  over  the  present  winter. 

The  jobber  further  reduces  the  demand  for  goods  at  critical 
times  by  a  considerable  reduction  of  the  stock  of  goods  carried  as 
a  reserve  to  supply  the  trade.  Many  large  hosiery  manufacturers 
in  Philadelphia  have  given  the  sellers'  lack  of  sufficient  effort  to 
secure  regularity  of  orders,  in  good  times  and  bad,  as  the  chief 
reason  for  the  firms  cutting  out  the  agent  and  doing  their  own  mar- 
keting. 

b.  In  the  second  place,  it  is  an  easy  matter,  since  the  goods 
are  not  sold  under  a  manufacturer's  brand,  for  the  selling  agent  to 
divert  the  orders  that  have  been  going  to  Manufacturer  "A"  to 
Manufacturer  "B."  Although  the  same  number  of  orders  may  be 
coming  through  to  the  manufacturing  trade  as  before,  still,  a  long 
period  of  unemployment  must  result  before  readjustment  will  be 
made.  On  the  other  hand,  where  the  hosiery  is  sold  under  the 
manufacturer's  brand,  the  orders  cannot  be  diverted,  at  will,  to 
anyone.  They  belong  to  a  particular  manufacturer.  That  man- 
ufacturer has  stablized  his  market  and  secured  a  grip  on  the  only 
steady  element  on  merchandizing — the  consumer's  demand.  Every 
phase  of  his  activity,  including  the  employment  of  labor  is,  there- 
fore, subject  to  less  uncertainty  and  fluctuation.  By  possessing  a 
market  for  a  standardized  product,  a  manufacturer  can  more 
readily  make  to  stock  and  thus  run  his  mill  steadily,  even  though 
orders  are  irregular. 

An  example  showing  the  degree  of  dominance  that  the  selling 
.  agent  aims  for  under  the  "sole  selling  agent"  system  is  the  case  of 


Steadying  Employment  79 

a  Philadelphia  firm.  When  this  firm  began  to  sell  direct,  the  former 
agent  felt  so  outraged  that  it  publicly  announced  it  would  drive 
this  firm  out  of  business  in  two  years. 

c.  A  third  abuse  is  the  evil  of  cancellation.  As  one  textile 
man  said,  "The  textile  business  is  the  most  weak-kneed  of  any  I 
know.  In  it,  a  contract  is  not  a  contract."  Even  though  an  order 
may  be  filed  with  a  manufacturer,  the  goods  bought,  and  even  in 
many  cases  made  up  and  shipped,  in  practice  the  buyer  still  has  the 
right  to  "call  off"  the  order.  In  some  years,  in  certain  lines,  the 
percentage  of  cancellation  runs  over  50  per  cent.  A  person  closely 
in  touch  with  the  hosiery  business  "very  roughly  estimates"  the 
average  percentage  of  cancellations  as  eight.  One  Philadelphia 
concern  had  to  close  down  when  it  received  recall  orders  from  its 
agent  to  85  per  cent  of  a  season's  orders. 

The  significance  of  cancellation,  in  its  relation  to  unemploy- 
ment, does  not  lie  in  the  percentage  of  orders  discontinued,  but  in 
the  fact  that  the  practice  tends  to  disorganize  production  and  keep 
employers  afraid  to  "make  up"  orders  until  delivery  time  is  near 
and  every  possible  opportunity  has  been  given  for  cancellation 
This  creates  busy  periods  just  before  a  season's  delivery  and  slack 
periods  at  other  times.  The  hosiery  manufacturer  who  sells  direct 
can  and  does  to  a  very  much  larger  degree  prevent  this  practice. 

d.  In  the  fourth  place,  the  manufacturer  who  "farms  out" 
his  selling  does  not  have  his  ear  to  the  ground.  He  is  slow  to  re- 
adjust himself  to  changes  in  demand — a  constant  complaint  from 
the  selling  agent.  In  a  business  characterized  by  frequent  veerings 
in  demand,  as  in  the  textile  business,  close  touch  with  the  market 
is  particularly  vital.  As  the  great  expansion  of  our  own  manufac- 
turing industries  plus  the  introduction  of  foreign  goods  takes  place, 
markets  will  be  better  supplied  than  formerly;  the  consumer  will 
be  given  a  greater  choice  in  his  purchases;  and  he  will  be  less  in- 
clined to  buy  whatever  may  be  set  before  him  whether  it  suits  him 
or  not.  Because  the  consumer  has  become  king  it  is  essential  that 
industry  be  so  organized  as  to  be  in  the  closest  possible  touch  with 
the  changes  in  his  demand.  For  example,  the  hosiery  market  in  the 
last  five  years  has  come  to  demand  less  and  less  heavy  cotton  goods 
and  more  and  more  thin,  imitation  silk  and  silk  goods.  The  man- 
ufacturers who  are  in  touch  with  the  market  have  been  quicker  to 
readjust  themselves  to  this  change  than  have  those  who  sell  through 


SE 

P                         S                         S                         c 

£ 

> 

; 

^ 

1 

■■        in 

/ 

/ 

',N. 

"~ 

> 

V 

<: 

s 

1 

•~~, 

s 

k. 

1 

\ 

^ 

•^ 

^> 

1  1 

-=- 

__ 

i\ 

>,^, 

1  I 

^ 

1 

Vi 

^, 

.    T 

- 

c 

\ 

"K 

/ 

-^ 

> 

' 

kf' 

2 

< 

■^ 

f 

<■ 

])> 

1 

I                1 

^    7 

CO                2 

_^ 

> 

' ' 

^ 

1 

, — ■ 

' 

-^ 

y 

A 

'■' 

,' 

1 

\ 

?  °"S        ™ 

< 

I 

\ 

) 

li-?      ? 

) 

1 

> 

,' 

f~. 

'^.  ' 

/ 

"^  §1      ^     '? 

' — 

, 

> 

'>■ 

1 

^ 

i' 

'  > 

\ 

' 

-  «        S     &5 

^ 

^ 

\ 

>/' 

y 

' 

> 

'<  - 

^_ 

^Sl  ^i  1^ 

c_ 

' 

, 

.' 

2-5^  e-  1" 

j; 

=» 

; 

A 

t^ 

r 

N 

^ 

yJ 

r 

-2  ™'c      I'D     S"° 

U 

J 

'0' 

S^S      ""i     ■g.t;             ^^ 

< 

jV 

s^l.  12    1^       < 

^-. 

[ 

\\ 

-^,   A  1^       2^ 

> 

\ 

'7 

\ 

1  '1! 

•     ?r^  ^'z  r=     1^ 

1' 

•> 

'^ 

i 

< 

1'  >^ 

> 

','  V 

1 

-is   -£  1^         ( 

> ; 

> 

t^%  'C&  ge?    ; 

'1 

I 

[i 

l^t-B^    1^2         (^ 

M 

>>'• 

< 

- 

-    1  .^ 

yf  '^ 

1^ 

', 

3  =^'~  J-5       ^  'I  S 

j 

b= 

■ 

J 

> 

<■,' 

-■ 

ts^S^e    oo° 

l^"*] 

\ 

( 

'^ 

=    T 

; 

J 

'/ 

^Ki— -5S-|    "^S:;:         A 

''  1 

^'z 

1 ' 

cS'H-I-ls    .^  ,J. 

) 

X  \ 

1 ,' 

4 

/ : 

1 1 

) 

5J5  >  '^  "  S    -^  "■ 

v: 

^ 

-e^-Nc    !  t 

^~~^ 

•^z 

, 

' 

fS^^s-    S  1 

^ 

>\ 

V 

'<;' 

/ 

K  \ 

', 

^ 

7\ 

,' 

k 

^    =T\^~^    V 

> 

i^ 

's 

'»  3 

^  S-S.-^  z  |S 

\ 

^^ 

; 

W- 

^^ 

>i 

r   , 

-^^^ 

^  ' 

^ 

,' 

1  >> 

/ 

/ 

K 

( 

■! 

1 

; 

\ 

f  \ 

'1 

s 

\, 

;/ 

\ 

, ,' 

■^ 

/ 

Y 

, 

'-, 

> 

V 

, 

'  1 

< 

Xi-    1 

\/ 

\ 

\  ' 

/, 

\ 

•\ 

~    3> 

»- 

^ 

-  ',   ' 

SI 

1=                 g                 a                 o 

o 

1^ 


Steadying  Employment  81 

agents.  Unemployment  results  from  any  such  miscalculation  of 
the  market. 

A  final  instance  of  the  way  in  which  a  Philadelphia  manu- 
facturer failed  to  make  the  selling  end  of  his  business  properly 
articulate  with  the  manufacturing  end,  may  be  mentioned  in  the 
case  of  a  cloth  manufacturer  whose  agent  is  primarily  the  agent  of 
another  concern  making  a  totally  different  kind  of  goods.  The 
seller  "goes  on  the  road"  at  the  time  of  year  suited  to  the  needs  of 
the  larger  client.  This  happens  to  be  the  the  wrong  time  of  year 
for  the  Philadelphia  cloth  manufacturer;  so  his  sales  are  not  large. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  among  the  most  successful  hosiery 
manufacturers  are  a  number  of  men  who  were  formerly  salesmen 
in  large  distributing  houses.  They  know  almost  nothing  about 
the  manufacturing  end;  they  do  know  how  to  sell. 

In  order  to  show  the  contrast,  in  production  and  employ- 
ment, between  hosiery  manufacturers  who  sell  direct  under  their 
own  brand  and  those  who  sell  through  agents  under  jobbers'  brands, 
figures  were  collected  from  eight  of  the  leading  hosiery  firms  in 
Philadelphia.  These  figures  give  each  firm's  total  payroll  at  each 
two-weekly  paydays  during  1913,  1914  and  to  May,  1915.  The 
kind  of  hosiery  manufactured  by  each  firm  is  stated  in  the  footnote. 
The  payroll  curves  showing  a  greater  irregularity  in  firms  who  sell 
through  selling  agents  are  given  in  figure  25. 

What  one  firm  has  been  able  to  accomplish,  in  a  seasonal 
business,  through  study  and  control  of  its  selling  end  is  suggested 
in  a  letter  as  follows: 

What  we  have  accompUshed  in  the  direction  of  leveling  the  curve  of  season- 
able work  has  been  done  chiefly  through  the  selling  end. 

Our  business  in  jewelers'  boxes  used  to  be  extremely  difficult  because  prac- 
tically all  of  the  output  was  made  to  order  and  work  could  seldom  be  started  imtil 
May  or  June,  and  had  to  be  completed  well  before  Christmas.  Our  factory, 
therefore,  used  to  be  out  of  work  from  the  middle  of  December  up  to  the  middle  of 
May,  and  so  seriously  overcrowded  from  that  time  on  that  poor  service  was 
frequently  given  customers  and  our  business  considerably  damaged.  A  few 
years  ago  we  began  to  make  earnest  efforts  to  get  box  orders  in  earlier.  After 
the  first  year  or  so  of  readjusting,  we  found  our  customers  were  more  than  willing 
to  help  in  this  work,  so  that  today  the  majority  of  our  orders  reach  us  between 
the  first  of  January  and  the  first  of  June.  This  requires  facilities  for  holding  the 
goods  until  the  date  desired  by  the  customer  for  shipping,  and,  of  course,  ties  up 
capital,  but  we  are  able  to  keep  experienced  workers  busy  the  j'ear  through,  are 
able  to  give  almost  perfect  satisfaction  in  service  to  our  customers,  and  through 


82  The  Annals  of  the  American  A cadennj 

the  consequent  savings  and  increased  business  the  cost  of  carrying  the  goods  has 
been  covered  several  times  over. 

One  striking  effect  which  went  way  beyond  our  expectations  was  the  im- 
provement in  quality  of  our  output,  which  under  the  old  system  suffered  more  than 
we  realized  through  the  work  of  untrained  hands  and  the  crowding  and  strain  of 
the  fall  season. 

Our  line  of  Christmas  specialties  has  been  handled  in  the  same  manner, 
though  an  easier  problem,  because  none  of  these  goods  are  made  to  order.  De- 
signs for  Christmas,  1915,  were  chosen  in  July,  1914,  then  approved  and  laid  out  as 
to  the  way  they  should  be  put  up,  etc.,  so  that  the  sample  run  could  be  ready 
by  March,  1915.  The  goods  are  then  sold  for  fall  dehvery  and  the  stock  manu- 
factured during  the  first  six  months  of  the  year. 

We  have  found  it  possible  once  or  twice  to  add  to  our  Une  an  item  or  two  that 
could  be  made  to  fill  in  a  gap  in  regular  employment;  for  example,  we  introduced 
Christmas  cards  printed  with  steel  die  in  order  to  keep  our  die-printing  crew  at 
work  during  a  slack  three  months. 

Again,  we  have  made  good  progress  by  substituting  stock  items  for  specials. 
For  example,  certain  goods  of  a  standard  type,  ordered  periodically  by  our  sales 
end,  were  manufactured  special  as  the  calls  came  in — sometimes  in  dull  times,  but 
more  often  during  a  rush  period,  by  selecting  certain  lines  and  manufacturing 
a  sufficient  stock  during  the  dull  months  the  situation  has  been  greatly  reheved. 

The  containers  which  are  used  for  our  merchandise  were  formerly  made  by  us 
at  different  intervals,  but  under  the  new  plan  the  entire  quantity  is  manufactured 
during  the  first  three  months  of  the  year.  Many  other  moves  of  this  sort  tend 
toward  further  relief. 

Our  problems  are  undoubtedly  easier  than  those  of  some  other  industries; 
however,  we  feel  from  our  experience  that  if  the  advantages  of  regularizing  em- 
ployment become  appreciated  by  the  employer,  some  possible  steps  will  suggest 
themselves,  and  these  will  in  turn  suggest  further  steps,  so  that  considerable 
improvement,  if  not  a  big  cure,  can  be  effected. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  a  Philadelphia  forging  and 
finishing  firm.  This  firm  has  so  coordinated  its  selling  and  man- 
ufacturing departments  that  greater  regularity  in  employment  is 
secured. 

a.  Continuity  of  Employment.  By  an  analysis  of  factory  conditions  we  have 
found  it  possible  to  minimize  the  loss  of  time  on  the  part  of  our  men  due  to  chang- 
ing machines  from  one  pattern  to  another  by  making  orders  to  the  factory  of  the 
maximum  size  and  by  endeavoring  to  make  changes  from  one  size  to  another  in  a 
distinctive  pattern  rather  than  a  blind  change  from  one  pattern  to  another.  By 
this  method  we  have  increased  the  efficiency  of  our  plant  to  a  marked  degree  in  so 
far  as  production  is  concerned  and  have  cut  down  materially  the  average  "turn- 
over" of  our  labor. 

b.  Complete  Analysis  of  Sales  Covering  Patterns  and  Sizes  by  Months.  By  the 
installation  of  this  system  we  find  that  some  goods  are  so  seasonable  that  the 
demand  can  be  anticipated  and  goods  made  up  in  dull  months  in  readiness  for 


Steadying  Employment  83 

the  market.  The  anticipation  does  away  with  non-employment  to  some  degree, 
and  keeps  the  manufacturer  from  being  overwhehned  with  certain  items  at  what 
is  probably  a  very  busy  time  on  other  lines.  In  other  words,  it  levels  the  peak 
load  and  raises  the  curve  of  dullness. 

c.  Dull  Business.  In  times  of  depression  that  are  so  pronounced  that  none 
escape  entirely,  it  is  necessary  to  push  the  selling  force  with  more  than  usual 
energy.  It  is  our  aim  to  get  out  new  designs  or  patterns  to  create  interest  and 
to  stimulate  business  with  selling  helps  for  the  merchant,  pointing  out  to  the 
retailer  that  in  time  of  depression  it  is  necessary  to  approach  the  retailer  problem 
from  a  different  angle,  and  that  by  the  use  of  such  helps  he  can  increase  his  trade. 
We  further  try  to  market  new  lines  of  goods  in  order  to  keep  our  working  force 
employed. 

A  shoe  manufacturing  concern  (outside  of  Philadelphia) 
codifies  the  results  of  its  ten  years'  experience  in  attempting  to 
reduce  seasonable  unemployment  (8  to  16  weeks)  as  follows: 

Unemployment: 

a.  Resulting  from:  Seasonable  demand  for  product  where  employes  are 
laid  off  and  work  on  short  time  for  a  considerable  period. 

Note.  In  the  majority  of  shoe  factories,  particularly  in  the  large  shoe 
centers,  this  causes  shoe  workers  to  be  unemployed  for  periods  ranging  from  eight 
to  sixteen  weeks  per  annum;  in  some  cases  more  than  this.  Many  of  the  employes 
are  laid  off  entirely  but  more  often  are  obliged  to  work  on  very  short  time  and  at 
greatly  reduced  wages. 

How  Improved: 

a.  By  education  of  distributors  to  a  realization  that  in  the  long  run  this  lost 
time  has  to  be  paid  for  in  the  product  and  by  getting  their  cooperation  with  this 
company  by  working  on  monthly  estimates,  put  in  at  the  beginning  of  the  season. 
In  busy  periods  customers  who  order  above  their  previous  estimates  are  cut  down 
on  deliveries  in  favor  of  customers  whose  estimates  are  not  overrun.  Customers 
are  not  held  strictly  to  monthly  estimates,  but  failure  to  follow  them  is  regarded  as 
a  sales  problem  and  is  freely  discussed. 

b.  By  the  manufacture  of  special  goods,  made  up  without  orders  and  sold 
through  a  special  department  created  for  that  purpose.  This  department  sells 
goods  only  when  allotted  to  it,  and  sells  them  through  special  distributing  chan- 
nels, giving  special  values  and  special  terms. 

c.  By  distributing  through  both  wholesale  and  large  retail  trade  whose 
deUveries  come  at  different  periods. 

One  automobile  concern  pushes  to  the  limit  the  business  of 
coordinating  the  selling  end  with  the  manufacturing  end  by  ad- 
dressing its  sales  force  in  substance  as  follows:  "We  can  make  so 
many  cars  of  each  different  grade  this  year.  Now  go  out  and  sell 
that  many." 


84  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 


From  the  foregoing  illustrations,  the  importance  of  a  stan- 
dardized product  is  evident,  as  well  as  the  part  which  a  correlated 
sales  department  can  consciously  play  in  making  possible  a  market 
for  this  product.  In  lines  such  as  clothing,  standardization  of  even 
a  part  of  the  product  is  a  herculean  task.  In  other  lines  standardi- 
zation is  relatively  easy  and  can,  therefore,  be  made  to  assist  very 
materially  in  the  steadying  of  production.  The  experience  of  one 
firm  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  how  a  little  planning  can  result 
in  standardizing  production.  This  firm  manufactures  articles  of 
printed  matter  used  by  everybody  {e.g.,  envelopes).  They  de- 
scribe their  work  as  follows: 

We  have  started  here  \Aath  month  work  along  this  very  line,  which  we  are 
calling  "Standardized  Orders"  selUng  10,000  to  20,000  articles  of  the  same  grade 
and  style  of  printing,  the  same  kind  of  paper,  size,  etc.,  running  one  order  per 
month  of  these  small  orders  totaling  1,000,000,  etc.,  guaranteeing  delivery  of 
same  at  the  end  of  the  month.  This  gives  us  a  large  monthly  stock  order  made 
up  of  a  number  of  units,  each  unit  calling  for  different  electrotype  and  shipping 
instructions  only. 

In  this  way  our  prices  can  be  made  more  attractive,  the  mass  of  detail  con- 
nected with  Planning  Department  is  largely  reduced  and  it  gives  us  an  even 
distribution  of  work,  largely  reducing  the  old  rush  orders,  rush  periods,  overtime 
or  night  work,  etc.,  and  keeps  our  force  more  steadily  employed.  The  profits 
from  a  Standardizing  Order  are  very  attractive,  although  the  selling  price  is 
considerably  less. 

Not  merely  is  this  a  good  thing  for  the  manufacturer  and  the 
employe,  but  also  it  is  an  even  better  thing  for  the  buyer  not  to  be 
running  out  of  such  a  necessary  commodity  all  the  time. 

6.     Time  Lost  Waiting  for  Dye  (or  Other  Materials) 

Most  of  the  dyeing  of  textile  fabrics  in  Philadelphia  is  done  by 
separate  firms,  apart  from  the  ones  in  which  the  dyed  goods  are 
made  up  into  fabrics.  Only  a  few  firms  maintain  their  own  dye- 
plants.  As  a  result  it  frequently  happens  in  many  firms  that, 
when  a  fabric  of  complex  pattern  is  to  be  woven,  it  will  be  fou  d 
that  a  certain  shade  of  goods  has  been  forgotten.  Or,  before  the 
garment  is  completely  woven,  yarn  of  a  certain  shade  will  run  short. 
While  more  yarn  is  sent  for,  the  loom  stands  idle.  In  some  mills 
it  is  a  rarity  for  weavers  to  make  a  full  week,  on  account  of  having 
to  wait  for  "  dye."  At  times  this  wait  extends  to  one  or  two  weeks. 
The  secretary  of  the  Brussels  Carpet  Weavers'  Association  esti- 
mates that  in  some  mills  the  loss  of  time  runs  as  high  as  16  per  cent. 


Steadying  Employment  85 

That  this  lost  time  can  be  prevented  is  shown  by  many  firms 
in  parallel  lines  of  the  textile  business,  which  may  or  may  not  oper- 
ate their  own  dye  houses,  where  the  time  lost  waiting  for  dye  is 
practically  nil. 

The  problem  of  time  lost  waiting  for  dye  is  simply  a  part  of 
the  larger  time  of  the  daily  and  hourly  interruptions  in  the  plant, 
waiting  for  this  or  that  reason.  Though  apparently  small,  this 
loss,  in  the  long  run,  totals  large.  A  shoe  firm  measured  this  lost 
time  and  succeeded  in  eliminating  it  to  a  large  degree.  See  the 
following  outline: 

Lost  Time  of  Employes  Through  Daily  and  Hourly  Interruptions 
Resulting  from: 

a.  Employes  coming  late;  lost  time  inconsiderable. 
How  Improved: 

1.  By  "In  Late  Pass  System,"  a  proper  investigation  by  foreman,  and  dis- 
cipline where  needed. 

b.  Employes  going  out  or  being  laid  off  early,  due  to  lack  of  work  or  stock. 
(Estimate  lost  time  two  to  five  weeks.) 

How  Improved: 

1.  By  organizing  material  purchasing  and  supply  system,  based  on  pre- 

determined sheet  system,  which  gives  purchasing  departments  ample 
time  to  purchase  all  material  to  exactly  meet  daily  requirements,  and 
to  know  absolutely  when  goods  must  be  delivered  in  the  various  de- 
partments to  meet  the  product  in  which  this  material  will  be  needed. 

2.  By  adopting  a  pre-determined  standard  daily  production  and  by  holding 

rigidly  to  it,  foremen  are  enabled  to  compute  accurately  the  number  of 
employes  needed  on  each  job. 

3.  Pre-determination  of  employes  needed  on  each  operation  is  faciUtated 

by  the  fact  that  all  work  is  piece  work,  based  on  standard  average  pro- 
duction of  operation. 

c.  Lost  time  due  to  fluctuation  on  special  operations  or  in  special  depart- 
ments, due  to  variation  in  the  class  of  product.  (Estimate  lost  time  one-half 
week.)  (Note: — Estimate  10  per  cent  of  employes  lost  five  hours  a  week,  fifty 
weeks  a  year,  equal  one-half  week. 

How  Improved: 

1.  By  system  of  routing  work  into  factories,  not  only  uniformly  in  pairs 
each  day,  but  also  uniformly  in  pairs  per  day  in  certain  types  of  prod- 
uct, such  as  patent  leather  shoes,  bluchers,  tan  calf,  button  boots,  etc. 
Where  production  on  these  items  vary  whole  operations  or  departments 


86  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

may  work  under  badly  fluctuating  loads.  By  routing  such  types  of 
work  into  the  factory  at  a  uniform  rate  per  day  for  pre-determined 
periods  these  operations  are  given  a  steady  production,  as  well  as  the 
operations  through  which  the  total  production  passes. 

There  are  many  other  ways  similar  to  the  above  by  which  unemployment 
problems  on  special  operations  or  departments  can  be  wholly  or  partially  solved. 
By  keeping  constantly  in  mind  the  necessity  for  steady  employment  it  is  usually 
possible  to  bring  about  good,  or  reasonably  good  conditions. 

To  secure  vacations  for  employes  the  entire  business  is  shut  down  for  the 
Fourth  of  July  week,  giving  employes  an  opportunity  to  get  rested  just  before  the 
hot  weather. 

June  and  November  are  our  most  difficult  months.  We  formerly  closed  four 
days  in  June  and  four  days  in  November  for  stock  taking.  This  was  discontinued 
several  years  ago.  Except  for  this  inventory  period  there  have  been  only  one  or 
two  seasons  in  ten  years  when  factories  have  been  closed,  and  then  only  for  one  to 
four  day  periods. 

Stopping  this  kind  of  unemployment  is  the  business  and  duty  of  management. 

7.     Lack   of  Balance   Between   Departments 

It  is  true,  in  many  cases,  that  one  department  in  a  continu- 
ous industry  will  be  too  large,  so  that  it  is  capable  of  producing  for 
the  department  it  feeds  faster  than  this  latter  can  consume.  As  a 
result  the  department  that  is  too  large  must  lay  off  and  wait  for 
the  other  to  catch  up.  This  results  either  from  an  honestly  un- 
successful effort  to  balance  the  different  departments,  or  from  an 
effort  to  insure  that  the  departments  with  low-priced  help  and 
machinery  shall  be  so  large  that  they  will  never  fail  to  keep  the  more 
costly  departments  busy. 

In  Axminster  Mill  "A,"  the  study  showed  that  the  "wind- 
ing" and  "picking"  departments,  which  "feed"  or  are  fed  by  the 
"weaving"  and  "setting"  departments,  each  lost  31  per  cent  of 
their  working  time  during  the  four-year  period  from  April,  1911, 
to  April,  1915.  Yet  the  weaving  department  lost  only  23  per  cent 
and  the  setting  department  lost  only  19  per  cent  of  the  working 
time.  These  figures  indicate  that  unemployment  is  being  created 
in  the  winding  and  picking  departments  because  they  are  too  large 
for  the  others. 

8.     Stock  Taking 

A  large  percentage  of  the  textile  firms  lose  from  one  to  three 
weeks'  time  a  year  in  taking  stock.     Many  of  the  payroll  curves 


Steadying  Employment  87 

of  individual  concerns  in  the  textile  industry  indicate  that  shut- 
downs for  one  or  two  weeks  a  year  are  quite  common  in  the  textile 
industry.  In  fact,  many  firms  lost  from  one  to  three  weeks  a 
year  taking  stock.  Side  by  side  with  these  firn)°  in  similar  lines 
of  the  same  industry,  are  those  which  avoid,  by  a  variety  of 
devices,  the  loss  of  any  time  at  all  through  the  taking  of  stock. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  many  concerns'  lost  time  that  is 
credited  to  stock  taking  is  really  due  to  lack  of  orders. 

9.  Limitation   of  the  Amount  an   Employe  is  Allowed  to 

Earn  Each  Week 

In  many  mills  an  employe  is  not  permitted  to  earn  more  than 
so  much  a  week.  Either  he  must  go  home  after  earning  that  amount 
or  else  he  must  dawdle  around  the  plant,  pretending  to  work.  In 
some  cases,  this  rule  is  put  in  force  by  the  employer  with  the  hope 
that,  by  thus  distributing  the  work  over  a  larger  number,  a  larger 
labor  reserve  is  kept  available  for  his  particular  plant.  In  other 
cases,  it  is  a  rule  promulgated  by  labor  unions  who  either  want 
what  work  there  is  distributed  over  all  in  the  trade,  or  who  fear  that 
if  ability  to  produce  a  larger  output  is  shown,  the  price  rate  will  be 
cut  down.     The  result  in  either  case  is  the  same. 

One  of  the  largest  employing  concerns  in  Philadelphia  places 
a  limit  on  the  amount  that  employes  in  certain  departments  may 
earn.  Investigation  showed  that  in  a  two-weekly  payroll  sheet 
of  a  large  hosiery  firm  in  Philadelphia,  31  of  69  piece  workers  in  the 
pressing  department  earned  within  five  cents  of  $36.  Since  these 
employes  were  not  allowed  to  go  home  early,  a  good  many  trips 
to  the  water  cooler  must  have  been  involved. 

10.  Frequent  Changes  in  Standard  Daily  Production  Policy 
OF  Factories  According  to  Volume  of  Orders  in  Sight 

One  Philadelphia  concern,  employing  many  thousands  of  men, 
regulates  the  laying  off  of  help  by  the  total  volume  of  business  booked 
so  many  weeks  ahead.  Running  a  plant  by  such  an  arithmetical 
rule  means  that  production  will  be  as  irregular  as  orders,  and  nec- 
essarily implies  great  irregularity  in  employment.  Within  a  six 
weeks'  period  in  1908,  this  firm  laid  off"  60  per  cent  of  its  help. 

The  methods  of  the  shoe  firm,  mentioned  above,  in  eliminating 


'88  The  Annals  oj  the  American  Academy 

the  two  to  four  weeks  of  annual  unemployment  are  described  by 
this  firm: 

Frequent  changes  in  standard  daily  production  policy  of  factories,  according 
to  volume  of  orders  in  sight. 

Note.  Many  factories  have  no  standard  daily  production  basis,  but  change 
frequently,  taking  on  or  laying  off  help  as  needed.  Roughly  estimated,  this 
causes  unemployment  of  from  two  to  four  weeks  per  annum,  in  many  cases  much 
more. 

How  Improved: 

1.  By  adopting  and  holding  absolutely  to  a  uniform  standard  daily  produc- 
tion basis  for  each  factory.  Many  of  our  factories  have  run  for  a  period  of  several 
years,  putting  into  the  factory  each  day  a  production  varying  not  over  one  per 
cent. 

2.  When  orders  do  not  in  a  monthly  period  or  block  equal  the  factory  capa- 
city, by  filling  in  with  special  stock  goods  in  small  quantities,  to  be  distributed 
through  the  special  department  previously  mentioned. 

3.  When  goods  needed  to  fill  monthly  dehvery  blocks  are  necessary,  by  asking 
distributors  to  send  in  orders  on  staples  to  fill  shortages. 

11.     Manufacture  to  Stock 

One  of  the  most  common  methods, — so  obvious  as  hardly  to 
need  mentioning, — adopted  to  assure  steadiness  of  employment, 
is  the  practice  of  using  the  dull  seasons  to  manufacture  to  stock, 
where  the  product  is  of  a  nature  that  does  not  lose  value  through 
being  stored.  When  the  main  product  cannot  be  stored,  firms 
frequently  use  the  slack  period  to  make  up  a  special  product. 

12.     Miscellaneous  Practices  by  Employers  Which  Lessen 
OR   Increase   the   Burden   of   Unemployment 

a.  Giving  Notice  of  Lay-off.  Where  the  periods  at  which 
help  is  laid  off  are  fairly  regular,  and  can,  therefore,  be  predicted 
in  advance,  it  is  not  too  much  to  ask  employers  to  give  notice  be- 
forehand of  the  date  on  which  such  lay-off  shall  take  place.  This 
plan  is  perhaps  best  adapted  to  department  stores,  where  it  is 
known  long  in  advance  that  a  certain  percentage  of  hands  will  be 
laid  off  at  certain  periods.  In  most  department  stores,  however, 
this  practice  is  not  followed;  and  extra  help  is  hired  under  the  agree- 
ment that  it  may  be  laid  off  without  notice. 

6.  Dovetailing  of  Trades.  Where  there  is  a  regular  seasonal 
laying-off  and  taking  on  of  help,  there  are  possibilities  of  regular 


Steadying  Employment  89 

seasonal  transfers  between  firms  whose  busy  seasons  and  slack 
seasons  dovetail.  This  "dovetailing  of  trades"  is  almost  unknown. 
A  printing  firm  (outside  of  Philadelphia)  with  a  maximum 
demand  for  help  in  the  summer  months,  writes,  as  follows,  of  a 
plan  it  has  in  mind  for  the  regular  exchange  of  help  between  itself 
and  a  neighboring  department  store: 

What  we  had  in  view  was  to  have  an  evening  school  of  instruction  so  that  a 
selected  group  of  girls  from  our  firm  could  be  trained  for  the  work  required  from 
sales  girls  in  a  department  store. 

There  is  a  civic  association  in  this  town  where  they  have  evening  classes.  I 
believe  they  teach  domestic  science,  millinery,  sewing,  etc.,  and  I  see  no  reason 
why  it  would  not  be  perfectly  practical  for  arrangements  to  be  made  so  that  a 
competent  person  from  a  department  store  could  teach  a  class  how  to  make  out  the 
sales  sUp,  to  meet  customers  and  the  best  methods  of  doing  the  required  work. 

I  hope  some  time  that  this  will  be  tried  out.  Undoubtedly  it  would  be  much 
easier  to  bring  this  about  if  two  plants  were  near  to  the  homes  of  the  workers. 
We  are  fourteen  miles  from  the  department  store,  and  most  of  the  women  em- 
ployes live  in  this  town  and  they  do  not  like  the  work  in  the  department  store  on 
account  of  both  the  carfares  and  the  time  required  to  make  the  trip. 

This  practice  would  tend  toward  continuity  of  employment  to 
employes  and  would  insure  the'  retention  of  trained  help  by  each 
concern.  A  few  firms,  when  it  is  necessary  to  lay  off  help,  assume 
responsibility  for  securing  new  positions  for  them.  This  represents 
an  ideal  attitude  on  the  part  of  such  business  firms.  A  general 
adoption  of  this  practice  would  do  much  to  assist  in  the  dovetail- 
ing of  trades  with  its  resulting  advantages  to  both  employers  and 
employes. 

c.  Loans  to  Employes.  A  Philadelphia  firm  that  manufactures 
shirtwaists  has,  for  ten  years,  loaned  money  without  interest  or 
collateral  to  its  employes.  Assurance  is  asked  that  the  money  is 
not  to  be  spent  viciously;  other  than  that,  the  company  does  not 
meddle  in  the  employes'  use  of  the  loans.  It  is  a  significant  com- 
mentary that  this  firm  has  never  lost  a  dollar  during  the  entire  ten 
years,  through  failure  of  employes  to  return  what  was  borrowed — 
and  the  firm  employ  several  hundred  workers. 

d.  Retaining  all  of  the  Employes'  Time  at  Fractional  Pro- 
ductivity. It  is  the  practice  in  some  textile  mills  for  a  man  to  op- 
erate two  or  more  looms.  In  dull  times  the  employe  is  allowed  to 
run  one  loom  only.  Thus,  although  the  employe  is  working  only 
at  half  or  at  third  capacity  and  wages,  he  is  forced  to  spend  all  of 


90  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

his  time  in  the  mill.  If  the  weaver  were  allowed  to  run  all  of  his 
looms  when  in  the  factory,  he  would  make  just  as  much,  and  at 
least  have  a  holiday  out  of  his  unemployment  in  which  he  could 
rest,  pick  up  odd  job  here  and  there,  or  seek  steadier  work.  The 
firm  undoubtedly  follows  this  practide  so  as  to  "hold"  on  to  its 
employes.  It  is  a  practice,  however,  which  even  the  "benevolent" 
argument — "by  this  means  we  keep  them  out  of  saloons" — cannot 
justify. 

e.  Enforcing  Needless  Expense  on  Employes  During  Periods  of 
Unemployjuent.  One  of  the  largest  of  the  employing  concerns  in 
and  around  Philadelphia  has  a  factory  located  over  ten  miles  from 
the  homes  of  most  of  its  workers.  Although  for  a  year  the  firm  has 
been  running  to  a  very  small  percentage  of  its  capacity,  it  has 
required  all  employes  to  report  at  least  once  a  week  to  the  office  of 
the  plant  ten  miles  away  regardless  of  whether  there  was  any  work 
to  be  done  or  not.  Employes  who  did  not  so  report  were  laid  off  the 
list  of  those  nominally  on  the  payroll.  This  rule  required  a  weekly 
carfare  expenditure  of  ten  or  fifteen  cents  each  way.  Thirty,  or 
even  twenty  cents  a  week  is  a  very  severe  drain  on  the  resources 
of  a  man  who  has  been  working  little  or  none  for  over  a  year.  The 
company  had  offices  near  the  homes  of  its  workers  where  reporting 
could  easily  have  been  done,  if  necessary.  The  carfare  expense 
might  thus  have  been  avoided.  Imposing  such  a  needless  burden 
is  evidence  of  a  criminal  lack  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  that  in- 
dividual firm. 

/.  Part-Time  Employment.  Permanent  part  time  employ- 
ment has  already  been  condemned  (p.  59).  As  an  emergency 
measure  to  distribute  employment  in  conditions  of  unusual  stress, 
it  can  often  be  of  great  service.  The  head  of  a  Philadelphia  concern 
employing  several  thousand  men  writes  as  follows : 

Employers  can  do  much  to  reduce  the  amount  of  unemployment.  Managers 
of  active  manufacturing  business  can  and  should  make  employment  much  more 
steady  than  has  too  frequently  been  the  case,  and  can  use  perfectly  legitimates 
means  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  fluctuations  in  the  number  of  employes  due  to 
times  of  industrial  depression.  Employers  owe  a  duty  to  their  employes,  to  their 
stockholders  and  to  society  to  keep  their  working  forces  intact,  active  and  well 
content,  and  the  strongest  possible  measures  should  be  used  to  this  end. 

One  of  the  most  important  means  to  this  end  was  freely  practiced  during  a 
period  of  depression  and  hardship  which  occurred  during  the  winter  just  closing, 
in  that  it  was  found  possible  to  take  the  amount  of  work  available  in  a  very  de- 


Steadying  Employment  91 

pressed  period  and  spread  it  and  the  wages  consequent  upon  this  work  over  as 
many  families  as  possible,  thus  distributing  the  money  available  for  wages,  even 
though  in  smaller  quantities  per  unit,  over  a  larger  number  of  individuals,  and 
keep  them  from  absolute  unemployment  to  a  greater  degree  than  would  have  oc- 
curred had  the  same  amount  of  wages  been  spread  over  a  smaller  number  of  em- 
ployes working  practically  full  time. 

It  is  fully  recognized  that  this  is  not  good  manufacturing  efficiency,  but  it 
was  deemed  a  humanitarian  measure  to  be  executed  in  times  which  were  very  hard 
for  both  employer  and  employed.  It  is  certain  that  the  employes  who  experienced 
this  form  of  cooperation  appreciated  what  was  being  done,  and  all  seemed  willing 
to  assist  to  the  fullest  degree.  Naturally,  there  was  no  discussion  of  these  meas- 
ures— they  were  simply  tried  and  found  to  be  useful  and  successful. 

Apropos  of  the  same  point,  another  employer  writes; 

At  times  of  industrial  depression  the  working  force  should  not  be  cut  down 
except  only  under  such  extraordinary  conditions  as  may  be  forced  upon  the  in- 
dustry, which  are  absolutely  beyond  its  control.  When  there  is  not  enough 
work  to  keep  the  entire  working  force  steadily  employed,  the  number  of 
hours  of  employment  should  be  reduced  equally  throughout  the  whole  organiza- 
tion. If  all  managers  realized  their  duty  in  this  respect,  both  to  their  organiza- 
tion and  to  the  community,  there  would  be  very  little,  if  any,  aggravation  of  the 
problem  of  unemployment  during  periods  of  industrial  depression. 

Where  part  time  is  necessary,  many  employers  can,  without 
difficulty,  so  arrange  the  working  time  that  the  burden  of  unem- 
ployment can  be  considerably  lessened.  For  example,  if  the  worker 
is  allowed  to  work  full  time  for  several  days,  then  take  several  days 
completely  off,  he  is  in  a  better  position  to  make  some  use  of  his 
idle  time  than  if  he  worked  every  day  at  fractional  time. 

g.  Times  of  payment.  One  concern  interprets  the  rule  that 
firms  pay  their  help  every  two  weeks  as  meaning  ''every  two  weeks 
of  completed  service."  In  other  words,  this  concern  pays  only 
after  an  employe  has  worked  for  twelve  days  even  though  that 
twelve  days  may  be  distributed  over  a  six,  eight  or  twelve  weeks' 
period,  as  it  is  during  slack  periods.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  firm 
is  decidedly  irregular,  so  that  this  is  frequently  the  case.  Earnest 
and  dignified  protests  from  conservative  business  associates  have 
been  repeatedly  ignored. 


PART  V 

THE   DUTY   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT 

Since  the  city  cannot  afford  to  permit  its  citizens  to  live  sub- 
normal lives,  it  is  the  business  of  the  government  to  leave  no  stone 
unturned  in  dealing  with  unemployment.  It  has  already  been 
pointed  out  that  the  appropriations  of  public  money  for  relief  pur- 
poses can  be  justified  only  in  extreme  distress. 

Municipal  Work 

The  feeling  that  the  city  government  should,  if  possible,  re- 
lieve unemployment,  coupled  with  the  idea  that  the  city  could 
expand  its  income  at  will  has  led  many  to  assume  that  public  work 
should  be  used  to  fill  up  the  low  points  of  employment  in  private 
work.  It  is  argued  that  city  work  should  be  saved  up  until  such 
times  as  it  will  tend  to  fill  the  gaps  in  employment.  Unquestionably, 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  municipality,  as  well  as  other  branches  of  govern- 
ment, to  do  this  so  far  as  possible.  However,  so  far  as  the  munic- 
ipality is  concerned,  the  value  of  public  work  as  a  means  of  meeting 
unemployment  has  been  very  greatly  exaggerated.  Practically 
the  only  work  which  the  city  can,  to  any  extent,  pile  up,  is  its 
contract  work.  But  the  amount  of  money  annually  spent  by 
Philadelphia  for  city  contracts  is  small.  In  1914,  the  value  of 
contract  work  done  for  the  city  was  about  $12,000,000.  Of  this, 
over  .$2,000,000  was  appropriated  for  services  which  must  be  per- 
formed regularly  through  the  year — such  as  street  cleaning,  gar- 
bage, ash  collection,  etc.  Of  the  remaining  contracts,  repre- 
senting only  $10,000,000,  one-half  is  spent  to  purchase  supplies  of 
various  kinds — chiefly  coal,  lumber,  and  groceries.  While,  un- 
doubtedly, the  hastening  of  purchases  of  public  supplies  would  be 
of  help  in  creating  employment  during  periods  of  stress,  and  should 
be  done  as  one  of  the  best  ways  the  city  government  can  help,  yet 
its  influence  will  be  but  slight.  Of  the  remaining  $5,000,000,  the 
majority  consists  of  paving,  resurfacing  and  similar  work,  which  can 
not  readily  be  done  in  winter  when  employment  is  most  serious. 
Only  a  small  part  of  the  city  work,  such  as  the  clearing  up  of  the 
meadows  in  South  Philadelphia  for    park  use  and  building  the 

[92] 


Steadying  Employment  93 

bulkheads  along  the  Schuylkill,  can  be  done  in  winter.  If  $1,000,000 
worth  of  contract  work  could  be  saved  annually  to  be  done  at 
emergency  periods  it  could  not,  after  materials  had  been  bought, 
furnish  employment  to  15,000  persons  for  a  month  even  at  low  rates. 
It  would  furnish  little,  if  any,  more  employment  than  would  be 
furnished  during  a  year  by  a  firm  with  700  employes.  It  must 
furthermore  be  considered  that  a  majority  of  the  unemployed  are 
persons  whose  sex,  previous  work,  environment  or  physical  in- 
capacity make  them  unable  to  do  the  heavy  out-door  construction 
work  that  the  city  would  chiefly  have  to  offer.  Even  without 
taking  into  account  the  difficulty  of  doing  many  kinds  of  city  work 
in  the  middle  of  winter,  the  minor  value  of  municipal  work  as  a 
means  of  meeting  serious  unemployment,  is  apparent.  Obviously, 
one  employing  concern,  even  though  it  be  the  city  government,  can 
do  little  to  handle  the  unemployment  problem  of  the  50,000  em- 
ploying concerns  in  Philadelphia.  It  is  folly  to  comfortably  delude 
ourselves  into  believing  that  a  better  distribution  of  municipal 
work  affords  a  solution  to  our  entire  problem. 

Despite  this  fact,  however,  a  fundamental  obligation  does 
rest  upon  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  of  the  city  gov- 
ernment to  regard  and  make  use  of  everything  in  municipal  work 
which  may  affect  unemployment.  As  much  public  work  as  is 
possible  should  be  done  at  times  when  business  is  slack,  but  under 
the  usual  business  conditions.  Their  fifty  years'  experience  in  deal- 
ing with  unemployment  has  taught  European  countries  that  simon- 
pure  relief  emplo3^ment,  i.e. — work  especially  made  to  furnish 
employment  and  conducted  at  low  efficiency,  and  with  little  set 
standard  of  efficiency,  is  bad  poUcy,  save  as  a  last  resort.  "Relief" 
work,  as  such,  is  more  costly  to  the  city  than  work  done  under 
normal  conditions,  despite  the  economy  advantage  frequently 
claimed  because  of  lower  wages  and  cheaper  materials.  The  policy 
usually  characteristic  of  relief  work — that  of  paying  a  wage  from 
one  to  ten  times  as  great  as  that  actually  earned— is  as  degrading 
and  degenerating  in  its  effect  on  the  jobless  man  as  is  the  mere 
hand-out  of  funds.  Relief  work  is  still  further  to  be  objected  to 
on  the  grounds  that,  by  providing  no  standard  of  competence,  it 
opens  an  easy  way  for  a  corrupt  administration  to  justify  endlessly 
its  own  excessive  expenditure  and  avoid  the  proper  safeguards  of 
the  civil  service  law.     Finally,  relief  work,  even  if  capable  of  sue- 


94  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

cessful  administration,  is  inadequate  since  it  deals  only  with  the 
resultant  human  suffering  without  touching  the  industrial  disor- 
ganization responsible  for  it. 

Therefore,  whatever  contribution  the  municipality  makes  by 
supplying  public  work  should  be  done  under  the  normal  or  approxi- 
mately normal  business  methods. 

With  these  conditions  imposed,  a  municipal  policy,  which  will 
reserve  public  work  not  of  a  pressing  nature  until  the  time  of  emer- 
gency, and  which  will  assure  the  rapid  starting  of  such  work  when 
needed,  should  be  adopted  by  each  successive  incoming  administra- 
tion. 

In  addition  to  this  the  municipality  can  assist  by  doing  many 
things  of  a  minor  nature  which  will  assist  in  solving  the  unemploy- 
ment question. 

Just  as  any  individual  employer  has  an  obligation  (not  always 
possible  to  attain)  to  furnish  steady  employment  the  year  round, 
so  should  the  municipality  adopt  the  policy  of  all-the-year-round 
work  for  strictly  municipal  employes.  This  policy  has  been  adopted 
in  Wellesley,  Mass. 

The  city  should  see  to  it  that  work  and  employment  given  out 
by  such  a  tremendous  construction  operation  as  the  building  of  the 
new  subway  system,  should  be  doled  out  as  regularly  as  possible. 
When  that  work  draws  to  a  close,  it  should  taper  down  gradually 
so  that  an  army  of  thousands  of  men  should  not  be  thrown  on  the 
city  at  once  and  the  city's  industries  expected  to  absorb  them  in- 
stantly, as  was  the  case  in  the  building  of  the  New  York  subway 
system. 

Finally,  the  municipality  should  have  some  place,  perhaps  a 
new  municipal  farm  with  quarry  attached,  where  residents  of 
Philadelphia,  who  are  unable  to  find  work,  can  be  temporarily 
employed  after  the  public  employment  bureau  has  granted  a  cer- 
tificate of  character  and  worthiness.  During  the  past  winter, 
many  men  were  found,  in  order  to  secure  assistance  from  the  city, 
to  have  had  themselves  committed  to  the  House  of  Correction. 
Many  of  these  were  doubtless  looking  for  a  warm  place  without  too 
much  tiresome  muscular  acitvity.  However,  many  were  perfectly 
sincere  in  their  desire  for  work.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  city 
should  not  have  a  separate  farm  with  a  quarry  attached  which 
would   help  supply  municipal  needs.     To  this  farm,   citizens  of 


Steadying  Employment  95 

Philadelphia,  capable  of  doing  hard  out-door  work,  could  be  ad- 
mitted upon  certificate  of  the  public  employment  bureau,  without 
stigma  of  disgrace,  and  work  at  a  normal  degree  of  efficiency  and  at 
a  wage  which  would  not  encourage  the  permanency  of  such  an  oc- 
cupation. Some  limit  should  be  placed  on  the  length  of  time  a 
person  might  be  allowed  to  remain  at  such  a  farm. 

A  Municipal  Employment  Bureau 

One  of  the  most  obvious  duties  of  the  city  government  is  the 
establishment  of  a  municipal  employment  bureau.  The  primary 
function  of  such  a  bureau  would  be  to  assist  in  bringing  men  out  of 
work  into  quick  and  easy  communication  with  employers  needing 
help.  At  present  the  responsibility  for  finding  a  new  job  rests 
almost  entirely  upon  the  man  out  of  work.  With  little  or  no  sys- 
tematized help  for  the  worker,  the  well-known  hope-killing,  de- 
generating process  of  hunting  a  job  results.  Under  existing  con- 
ditions the  need  for  such  a  bureau  as  a  labor  clearing  house  is  very 
real.  It  should  be  recognized  that  the  ideal  and  eventual  solution 
is,  not  to  have  men  change  their  jobs  no  matter  how  cheaply  oy 
efficiently,  but  to  have  them  remain  steadily  employed  in  their 
present  jobs.  The  present  chaotic  condition  of  labor  turnover  in 
most  factories  has  accentuated  the  present  need  and  exaggerated 
the  ultimate  value  of  public  employment  bureaus. 

At  present,  the  man  out  of  work  seeks  a  new  position  through 
one  or  more  of  five  chief  methods. 

1.  Inserting  and  answering  newspaper  ads. 

2.  Applying  to  the  business  agent  of  his  union. 

3.  Applying  at  a  private  employment  bureau  or  at  the  em- 
ployment bureau  conducted  by  organizations  of  employers  in  certain 
trades. 

4.  By  means  of  introductions  by  friends. 

5.  By  tramping  the  streets,  applying  at  random. 

The  inadequacy  of  these  methods  for  meeting  the  whole  sit- 
uation is  almost  too  obvious  to  point  out.  If  the  man  out  of  work 
answers  newspaper  ads,  he  is  apt  to  find  that  he  has  arrived  too 
late,  or  that  as  a  result  of  the  vagueness  of  the  newspaper  descrip- 
tion, he  has  applied  for  a  job  for  which  he  is  not  fitted.  To  insert 
an  advertisement  involves  an  expense  that  cannot  well  be  stood  by 


96  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

the  person  unemployed  and  is  frequently  not  justified  by  results. 
Members  of  unions  which  include  in  their  membership  a  high  per- 
centage of  the  trade,  are  in  a  much  better  position  to  be  assisted 
to  a  new  work  if  there  is  any.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  but  a 
small  percentage  of  the  wage-earners  belong  to  unions,  and  the 
majority  are,  therefore,  not  in  a  position  to  profit  by  the  union 
activities.  The  man  out  of  work  can  use  a  private  employment 
bureau,  but  each  of  these  covers  only  a  small  corner  of  its  particular 
field,  so  that  it  may  or  may  not  know  where  there  is  a  suitable  job. 
Moreover,  if  he  secures  a  position,  the  applicant  must  pay  a  fee 
ranging  from  $1  up.  Even  if  no  job  is  forthcoming,  a  fee  of  50  cents 
is  usually  charged.  Finally,  the  private  employment  bureaus 
make  little  analysis  of  positions  with  a  view  to  fitting  the  men  ac- 
curately so  that  satisfaction  and  permanence  of  employment  shall 
be  assured. 

Applying  at  random  for  work,  or  where  "help  wanted"  signs 
announce  the  need  for  new  help  frequently  means  a  hope-killing, 
all-day  hunt  for  a  job  that  does  not  exist  or  else  it  means  walking 
all  around  a  job  without  finding  it.  The  business  of  finding  jobs 
is  so  unsystematic  that  hunting  work,  in  a  large  percentage  of 
cases,  is  very  much  like  a  game  of  "Wind  man's  buff,"  with  the 
hunt  extending  all  over  the  city  and  even  farther. 

The  stories  of  one  day's  experiences  told  by  an  employe  se- 
lected at  random  in  an  Axminster  carpet  mill,  show  how  extrav- 
agant, discouraging  and  inefficient  are  the  prevailing  means  of 
seeking  work  and  how  immeasurably  superior  it  would  be  if  all,  or 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  work  of  job-hunting,  could  be  central- 
ized in  one  free  public  employment  bureau — which  should  be  a 
great  labor  clearing  house  for  the  entire  city.  This  man,  who  was 
young  and  unmarried  and  a  day  laborer,  had  been  employed  at  the 

hat  factory.     In  the  middle  of  February  he  was  laid  off  with 

24  others  because  of  a  lack  of  work.  He  remained  unemployed  till 
Easter.  He  was  told  that  he  would  be  taken  on  at  the  hat  factory 
when  times  were  better.  The  new  employer  gave  him  a  good 
recommendation  as  to  ability  and  steadiness.  He  reports  that  he 
had  enough  "rainy  day"  money  saved  up  so  that  it  lasted  during 
his  period  of  unemployment.  He  described  one  day's  travel  in 
search  for  a  job  as  follows: 


Steadying  Employment  9? 

I  got  up  at  5.30  and  went  to  Baldwin's  and  was  told  no  help  was  required. 
From  there,  I  went  to  Hale  &  Kilburn  at  18th  and  Lehigh  Avenue  and  met  with 
the  same  answer.  I  then  walked  to  2d  and  Erie  Avenue  to  Potter's  Oil  Cloth 
Works,  and  they  needed  no  help.  Then  to  the  Hess  Bright  Company,  at  Front 
and  Erie  Avenue,  and  again  met  with  the  same  result.  Next  I  came  back  home 
at  2d  and  Lehigh  Avenue  for  a  meal.  In  the  afternoon,  I  went  to  Edward  Brom- 
ley's; no  help  needed;  from  there  to  a  firm  at  American  and  Girard  Streets,  with 
the  same  result.  Then  I  called  at  the  Barnett  File  Works,  again  with  the  same 
result.  I  tried  two  other  places  in  the  neighborhood,  whose  names  I  have 
forgotten,  and  none  had  any  work.  Often  I  would  go  out  and  after  meeting  with 
bad  luck  day  after  day,  would  say  to  myself  at  night,  "the  job  has  got  to  find  me," 
but  the  next  morning  I  would  feel  differently  about  it. 

In  all  this  man  walked  approximately  186  squares  in  this  one 
day.     The  path  covered  by  this  man  this  day  is  shown  in  fig  26. 

The  function  of  a  public  employment  bureau  should  not  be 
interpreted,  as  it  frequently  is,  as  a  cure  for  unemployment.  It 
does  not  create  jobs.  Only  in  indirect  roundabout  ways  does  it 
tend  to  cure  unemployment.  It  can,  however,  greatly  improve 
the  situation  of  the  unemployed  by  effecting  quickly  and  cheaply 
the  transition  from  one  job  to  another.  When  the  business  of  se- 
curing work  for  idle  workers  shall  have  been  concentrated  in  public 
employment  bureaus  to  the  degree  which  it  is  in  Germany,  the  dis- 
piriting, aimless,  inefficient  hunt  for  a  job  by  thousands  of  individ- 
ual unemployed  workers  should  be  a  thing  of  the  past. 

The  bureau  should  bring  about  a  "dovetailing"  between  in- 
dustries which  require  similar  kinds  of  labor  and  in  which  the  "off- 
season" of  one  corresponds  with  the  ''on-season"  of  another,  as  in 
the  case  mentioned  (on  page  88)  of  the  printing  concern  and  a 
department  store.  Such  a  plan  would  assure  the  retention  of 
skilled  workers  by  the  firm  and  contribute  to  continuity  of  employ- 
ment. 

In  other  ways,  the  bureau  can  cooperate  with  employers  to 
reduce  the  irregularity  of  employment  in  certain  industries.  The 
extreme  irregularity  of  employment  among  Philadelphia's  4,000 
dock  workers  has  already  been  indicated.  The  unemployment 
arising  from  the  over-crowding  of  the  dock  working  trade  in  Liver- 
pool has  been  largely  reduced  by  an  agreement  entered  into  by  the 
stevedores  and  shipping  concerns  and  the  public  employment 
bm-eau.  This  agreement  provides  for  common  clearing  houses 
along  the  docks  from  which  firms  employing  such  labor  secure  their 


^Kowl^q  course,  walked  by  oi\£  untrrvploycd 
workar  m  or\(z.  day  b  search  for  z  job —166 
sq^rct)  ir\  all 

TKi^)  c^oes  or\  coasTarvtly  or\lhe  part 

of  Kurxdrdds  li\  timts  of  severs  unem- 
ploymer\t  r\ot  one.  day,  but  every  day, 
sees  Ihousands  e;r\qzsged  ir\  ^  search, 
like  this        ,  ,  ,  . 

Should  not  a  public  ernploymcnt  bureau 
be  established   to  assisi    in    preventing 
Kese  inefficient  hunts  for  a  job'? 

ORDER  OFTRIP 

® - Aome 

©  -Baldwin  Locomo1"fve  Works 

@- AaleSfKilburn 

@  -Pollers  Linoleum  Works 

(S)  -  Mess  Bright  Ball  Bearinq  Co 

®  -home  To  lunch. 

@  -Zdward  Bromley. 

@ -Barnelt  File  Works 


Figure  26 


Steadying  Employment  99 

help.  When  a  call  for  workers  comes,  the  officials  of  the  clearing 
houses  choose  those  who  have  Ijeen  longest  in  the  trade,  all  other 
things  being  equal.  Thus  an  automatic  limitation  (as  well  as 
certain  other  artificial  hmitations)  is  placed  on  the  entrance  of 
newcomers  into  the  trade.  This  reduces  the  over-crowding  and 
conseciuent  unemployment  among  dock  workers.  Some  similar 
plan  would  be  of  advantage  to  Philadelphia.  The  public  employment 
bureau  should  work  out  the  details  of  such  a  scheme  and  secure  the 
cooperation  of  employers  and  the  large  share  of  government  support 
necessary  for  such  a  plan. 

The  Philadelphia  employment  bureau  should  be  more  than 
an  employment  bureau.  It  should  be  the  official  headquarters 
for  the  community's  steady  fight  against  unemployment.  Its 
records  and  experience  would  constantly  throw  fight  on  the  problem. 
This  information  should  be  published  and  freely  distributed  to  every 
agency  that  is  interested  in  the  subject. 

The  bureau  should  cooperate  with  educational  institutions, 
giving  advice,  etc.  The  institutions  in  turn  would  help  forward 
the  investigation,  and  dissemination  of  facts  about  unemployment. 

A  future  department  of  the  bureau  should  be  especially  con- 
cerned with  the  question  of  vocational  guidance  of  young  people. 
An  efficient  employment  bureau  would  be  so  intimately  conversant 
with  the  conditions  of  the  labor  market  in  each  trade  and  with  the 
qualities  required  of  the  worker  for  success  in  that  trade  that  it 
should  be  able  to  offer  and  should  maintain  facilities  for  giving 
advice  to  young  people  about  to  enter  industry  and  older  persons 
who  contemplate  shifting  from  one  trade  to  another.  In  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Vocational  Training  Department  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  information  regarding  the  opportunity  or  lack  of  op- 
portunity, as  well  as  the  requirements  of  particular  trades,  should 
be  published  in  pamphlet  form  for  the  benefit  of  teachers,  parents 
and  others  in  a  position  to  advise  young  persons  about  to  enter 
industry.  The  need  for  work  of  this  kind  can  be  illustrated  by  the 
situation  in  the  lace  business.  Here,  despite  the  fact  that  the  300 
or  400  lace  weavers  now  in  the  business  are  a  much  larger  number 
than  the  industry  can  keep  anywhere  near  busy,  there  are  approx- 
imately 100  boys  and  young  men  who,  either  as  formal  apprentices 
or  in  some  other  capacity,  are  now  in  line,  hoping  to  enter  the  lace 
weavers'  trade. 


100  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Since  progress  in  reducing  unemployment  will  necessarily  be 
slow — as  one  man  puts  it — "will  last  us  a  thousand  years"- — 
Philadelphia  should  look  forward  to  the  adoption,  on  either  a 
state  or  city  basis,  of  some  form  of  insurance  for  wage-earners 
against  unemployment — such  as  is  in  vogue  in  many  of  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  In  essence,  this  simply  means  that  the  government, 
the  employer  and  the  employe  shall  contribute  so  much  per  week 
to  a  common  fund  from  which  certain  sums  shall  be  paid  out  to 
those  insured  when  unemployed.  This  insurance  fund  is  usually 
administered  by  the  public  employment  bureaus  who  offer  work  first, 
if  it  is  available.  The  function  of  administering  unemployment 
insurance  will  fall  upon  the  local  bureau.  This  insurance  cannot, 
however,  be  practically  adopted  until  after  the  labor  market  has 
been  organized  and  the  procuring  of  jobs  sufficiently  centralized 
in  the  bureau.  This  is  necessary  so  that  the  bureau  may  be  in  a 
position  to  ascertain  that  there  really  is  no  work  before  unemploy- 
ment insurance  shall  be  granted. 

A  committee  of  the  American  Association  of  Labor  Legisla- 
tion, working  in  conjunction  with  the  State  Department  of  Labor 
and  Industry  and  the  Department  of  Public  Works,  secured  the 
passage  in  June,  1915,  of  laws  providing  for  a  state  system  of  pub- 
lic employment  bureaus.  One  of  the  functions  of  this  system  of 
public  employment  bureaus  is  the  regulation  of  private  employ- 
ment bureaus.  By  the  terms  of  these  acts,  provision  is  made  for 
the  establishment  and  operation  of  a  pubhc  bureau  in  any  city 
by  the  joint  authority  of  the  city  and  state.  Plans  are  now  on  foot 
for  the  establishment  of  such  a  joint  bureau  in  Philadelphia.  As 
soon  as  Councils  convene  in  the  fall  of  1915,  an  ordinance  should  be 
introduced  authorizing  the  cooperation  of  the  city  authorities.  In 
fact,  the  state  has  already  started  such  a  bureau.  It  is  desired  that 
the  federal  department  of  immigration,  which  now  supports  a 
public  employment  bureau  in  Philadelphia,  can  be  induced  to  join 
in  to  help  make  one  large  bureau  in  Philadelphia,  thus  avoiding 
needless  duplication  of  work. 

It  is  hoped  that  by  thus  joining  the  efforts  of  three  govern- 
ment agencies  in  the  support  of  one  bureau,  a  common  error  and 
cause  of  failure  in  public  employment  bureaus  shall  be  avoided — 
namely,  insufficient  funds  to  secure  men  of  capability  as  superin- 
tendents, and  to  prosecute  properly  the  duties  of  the  bureau.     Two 


Steadying  Employment  101 

other  requirements  for  an  ideal  bureau,  which  are,  however,  fre- 
quently overlooked,  are  (1)  a  central  location,  on  the  first  floor  and 
with  plenty  of  space,  and  (2)  the  choosing  of  employes  under  civil 
service  rule. 

A  Municipal  Lodging  House 

A  suggestion  commonly  made  is  that  the  city  should  support 
a  municipal  lodging  house.  An  additional  permanent  lodging 
house  in  Philadelphia  is  unnessary  since  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of 
the  Society  for  Organizing  Charity  (up  to  the  summer  of  1915) 
permanently  supports  one  wayfarers'  lodge,  at  which  175  homeless 
men  can  find  shelter  and  food  in  return  for  a  small  amount  of  work. 
In  addition  to  this,  two  missions  offered  floors  where  homeless  men 
could  "  flop"  during  the  past  winter.  Up  to  this  spring,  the  Society 
for  Organizing  Charity  maintained  two  lodges  with  a  total  capacity 
of  275.  On  only  a  few  nights  during  the  severe  winter  just  past 
were  these  lodges  filled  to  capacity.  The  existence  of  one  (the 
smaller  one  has  been  closed)  of  these  lodges  leads  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  an  additional  permanent  municipal  lodging  house  would 
simply  encourage  and  attract  those  of  the  unemployed  who  are 
neither  willing  nor  able  to  work.  However,  prevalent  practice  and 
opinion  in  the  larger  cities  of  the  country  recommends  that  such 
lodges  for  homeless  men  should  be  taken  over  by  the  city,  in  toto, 
from  the  private  charities.  This  would  make  possible  better  regula- 
tion and  higher  standards  in  such  work.  In  times  of  unusual  stress, 
whenever  the  facilities  of  the  lodges  of  the  Society  for  Organizing 
Charity  should  become  entirely  inadequate,  the  city  should  make 
provisions  for  the  supplying  of  temporary  accommodations,  as  a 
number  of  business  men  headed  by  H.  T.  Saunders  did  this  past 
winter,  and  just  as  did  New  York  City  when  its  regular  municipal 
lodging  house  became  inadequate.  Provision  for  administering 
these  temporary  quarters  might  be  made  with  some  existing 
charities,  if  the  work  of  furnishing  accommodations  to  homeless 
men  is  left  to  the  societies. 

The  Duty  of  the  Consumer 

The  entire  responsibility  for  dealing  with  unemployment 
cannot  be  shouldered  off  on  to  employers  and  the  city  government. 
Consumers  should  realize  that  by  following  extreme  styles  in  clothes, 


102  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

household  furnishings,  etc.,  they  are  making  steady  production 
difficult  to  the  manufacturer,  and  are,  therefore,  contributing  to 
unemployment. 

They  should  also  realize  that  when  industry  is  slack,  there 
rests  upon  the  individuals  the  obligation  to  purchase  as  much  and 
as  widely  as  possible  against  future  need,  so  that  industry  will  be 
started  up  and  employment  again  furnished.  By  "buying  now," 
"hiring  now,"  "repairing  now,"  "building  now,"  "cleaning  up  now," 
in  slack  times,  both  business  firms,  householders  and  individuals  in 
general  can  contribute  in  the  sanest  way  towards  the  relief  of  unem- 
ploj'ment.  A  campaign  along  this  hne,  similar  to  the  Consumers' 
League  "shop  early"  campaign,  would  be  desirable.  The  Con- 
sumers' League  is  the  logical  agency  to  undertake  such  a  campaign. 

Employers  should  realize  that  the  effect  of  every  expenditure 
either  for  labor  or  materials  in  one  firm  or  industry  tends  to  spread 
and  stimulate  other  industries  whose  improved  prosperity  reacts 
on  the  original  firm  or  industry. 


INDEX 


Agriculture,  unemployment,  31-32. 

Charity,  public  and  private,  52-53. 

Clothing  industry,  unemployment,  21- 
27. 

Consumer,  duty,  101-102. 

Consumers'  League,  work  of,  on  un- 
employment, 49-50. 

Contract  work,  Philadelphia,  92. 

Cooperation,  between  manufacituring 
and  selling  departments,  77-84. 

Cost  accounting,  new  methods,  58. 

Costs,  determining,  58. 

Departments,  lack  of  balance  beween, 

86. 
Dyes,  time  lost  waiting  for,  84-86. 

Efficiency,  loss  of,  46. 

Employers:  cost  of  unemployment  to, 
43-47;  duty,  55,  76;  output,  43; 
records  obtained  by,  56. 

Employes:  discharge,  74;  earnings,  87; 
expenses,  90;  hiring,  74;  in  railway 
equipment  plant,  26,  29;  loans,  89; 
lost  time  of,  85-86;  municipal,  94; 
on  truck  farms  in  South  Jersey,  30; 
payment,  91;  reports,  57;  training, 
75-76;  unemployment,  37-43. 

Employment:  56-57,  74,  98;  central- 
ized, 72;  continuity  of,  82,  89,  97 
fluctuations,  76;  irregular,  19,  30,  32 
61,  77-79,  97;  part-time,  90-91 
permanence,  96;  regularity,  25-27 
33-34,  82;  seasonal  variations,  23 
steady,  17. 

bureau,  municipal,  95. 

department,  functionalized,  73- 

75. 


Factory,  conditions  in,  74-75. 


Government,  duty  of,  towards  unem- 
ployment, 92-101. 

Hiring  and  firing,  methods,  71-75. 

Income,  irregular,  39. 

Labor:  Philadelphia,  46;  skilled,  40. 

reserve:  excessive,  59-63;  reasons 

for,  59-61. 

turnover:  cause,  73;  cost,  67;  de- 
termining, 57,  64-65;  meaning,  63; 
reduction,  63-77;  size,  69-70;  unem- 
ployment and,  65,  67. 

unions,  unemployment  and,  34- 

35. 

Laying-off,  notice,  88. 

Management,  efficiency,  70. 

Manufacturing  department,  coopera- 
tion between  selling  and,  77-84. 

Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company, 
canvass  of,  3,  48. 

Municipal  lodging  houses,  101. 

New  Jersey:  output  in,  44;  unemploy- 
ment, 36. 

Orders,  cancellation,  79. 

Payrolls,  variations,  17,  80. 

Personnel,  working  force,  46. 

Philadelphia:  contract  work  in,  92; 
crimes,  41;  labor  market,  46;  unem- 
ployment, 1-36. 

Positions,  securing  new,  95. 

Production:  continuity  of,  77;  cost,  58; 
disorganization,  79;  irregularity,  12, 
18;  policy,  87-88;  standardization, 
84;  steadying,  84. 

Public  employment  bureaus:  functions, 


[103;] 


104 


Index 


97,  100;  need  and  value,  95;  require- 
ments, 101. 

Sales,  analysis  of,  82-83. 

Scientific  management,  results,  62. 

Selling  department:  cooperation  be- 
tween manufacturing  and,  77-84; 
study  and  control  of,  81-82. 

Standardization,  of  products,  77-84. 

Stock,  manufacturing  to,  88. 

taking,  time  lost  in,  86-87. 

Textile  industry,  unemployment,  5-21. 
Trades,  dovetailing  of,  88-89. 

Unemployment:  agricultural  labor,  31- 
32;  building  trades,  29;  carpet  in- 
dustry, 12-18;  causes,  6-7,  57,  59; 
clothing  industry,  18-27;  Consumers' 
League  on;49-50 ;  cost,  37-47 ;  courses 
in,  50;  department  stores,  32-34;  ef- 


fects, 40-43,  45,  65,  67;  elimination, 
54,  88;  extent,  2-3;  government  and, 
92-101;  hosiery  industry,  20-21 ;  im- 
provement, 83;  labor  unions,  34-35; 
lace  curtain  business,  7-13,  59;  long- 
shoremen, 29,  31;  municipal  work  in, 
92-95;  New  Jersey,  36;  permanency, 
3-36;  Philadelphia,  1-36;  reduction, 
100;  remedies,  51,  55-56;  seasonable, 
83;  statistics,  48-49;  textile  industry, 
5-21. 

Vocational  guidance,  99 

Wage-earners,  carpet  industry,  18. 

scale,  reduction,  37-39. 

Wages:  carpet  mills,  15;  lace  weavers, 

8-12. 
Women  workers,  training,  62-63. 
Workers:     industrial     eflSciency,     40; 

training,  61-63. 


000  086  974 


Six   Thousand   Business   Men  and   Public  Officials 

are  keeping  informed  on 

CURRENT  SOCIAL,  ECONOMIC  AND  POLITICAL  PROBLEMS 

through  membership  in 

The  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science 
MEMBERS  OF  THE  ACADEMY 


Receive  copies  of  dl  the  publications  issoed  by  the  Academy,  indud- 
ing  the  six  copies  of  The  Annals. 

These  are  books  on  special  subjects,  of  three  himdred  or  more  pages  in 
length,  caiefully  indexed.  These  volumes,  which  appear  bi-monthly, 
discuss  prominent  subjects  of  national  or  international  importance  and 
include  a  r&ume  of  the  new  books  and  documents  on  econoniic,  social 
and  political  subjects. 

May  send  queries  for  bibhographies  and  other  information  on  current 
economic,  social  and  political  problems. 

These  queries  are  answered  by  specialists.  The  subjects  on  which 
queries  may  be  sent  include;  foreign  relations,  including  the  consular 
and  diplomatic  service;  corporation  finance,  investments  and  banking 
problems;  insurance,  brokerage  and  the  exchanges;  social  work,  govern- 
ment and  administration;  sociology;  economics;  statistics  and  labor 
problems;  public  finance  and  taxation;  international  law;  transporta- 
tion; commerce  and  industry. 

Are  entitled  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  Academy. 

At  these  meetings  well  informed  speakers  discuss  matters  of  paramount 
public  interest. 


Some  Facts  that  are  Testimonials 

Present  membership  in  the  Academy .• 6,382 

New  members  and  subscriptions  during  1915 730 

Of  those  who  first  enrolled  as  members  in  1890,  278  are  members  now  or  remained 
members  until  their  death. 

During  the  twenty-five  years  since  the  Academy  was  organized,  there  has  been  a 
net  annual  increase  in  membership  of  178.  In  the  twenty-year  period  from  1895- 
1915,  the  net  annual  increase  in  membership  was  232.  In  the  ten-year  period  from 
1905-1914,  the  net  annual  increase  was  300. 


For  Application  for  Membership  Address 
The  AMERICAN   ACADEMY  of   POLITICAL   and   SOCIAL   SCIENCE 

LOGAN  HALL,  36TH  A^a^  WOODLAND  AVENUE  -         -         -         PHILADELPHIA 

Membership  fee,  $5.00;  life  membership  fee,  $100. 


The  American  Academy 


OF 


Political  and  Social  Science 

Philadelphia 


President 
L.  S.  ROWE,  Ph.D.,  University  of  Pennsylvania 


Vice-Presidents 


CARL  KELSEY,  Ph.D. 
University  of  Pennsylvania 


CHARLES  W.  DABNEY,  PhJ). 
University  of  Cincinnati 


DAVID  P.  BARROWS,  Ph.D. 

University  of  California 


Secretary 


J.  P.  LICHTENBERGER,  Ph.D. 
University  of  Pennsylvania 

Treasurer 

CHARLES  J.  RHOADS,  Esq. 
Federal  Reserve  Bank,  Philadelphia 


Counsel 

HON.  CLINTON  ROGERS  WOODRUFF 

North  American  Building,  Philadelphia 

Librarian 

JAMES  T.  YOUNG,  Ph.D. 
University  of  Pennsylvania 


General  Advisory  Committee 


RT.HON.  ARTHUR  J.BALFOUR.M  .P. 
London,  England 

PROF.  C.  F.  BASTABLE 
Dublin  University 

PROF.  P.  VIDAL  DE  LA  BLACHE 
University  of  Paris 

PROF.  F.  W.  BLACKMAR 
University  of  Kansas 

PROF.  EDWIN  CANNAN,  LL.D. 
Oxford,  England 

DR.  LUIS  M.  DRAGO 

Buenos  Aires,  Argentina 

PROF.  L.  DUPRIEZ 
University  of  Louvain 

PROF.  R.  T.  ELY 

University  of  Wisconsin 

PROF.  HENRY  W.  FARNAM 
Yale  University 

PROF.  CARLO  F.  FERRARIS 
Royal  University,  Padxia,  Italy 


PROF.  W.  W.  FOLWELL 
University  of  Minnesota 

HON.  LYMAN  J.  GAGE 
San  Diego,  Cal. 

PROF.  CARL  GRUNBERG 
University  of  Wien 

SEIZOR  ANTONIS  HUNEEUS 
I         Santiago,  Chile 

I  PROF.  J.  W.  JENKS 

I         New  York  University 

I  PROF.  W.  LOTZ 

University  of  Mflnchen 

1  PROF.  BERNARD  MOSES 
j         University  of  California 

j  DR.  JAVIER  PRADO  y  UGARTECHE 
i         Univ.  of  San  Marcos,  Lima,  Peru 

i  HON.  HENRY  WADE  ROGERS 
New  Haven,  Conn. 

i  HON.  HANNIS  TAYLOR,  LL.D. 
,  Washington,  D.  C. 


